U.S. stock futures were lower Wednesday morning, unable to hold on to the gains posted on Tuesday late in the session. While investors are still concerned over the Big Three bailout, they will also focus today on some key economic releases.Overseas, European stock markets headed lower Wednesday following losses in Asia as investors worried how the global downturn could affect banking and commodity stocks. Meanwhile, oil continued its drive toward $50 a barrel, with oil prices dipping below $54 a barrel on fears global economic weakness will curb demand.
Data on prices and the housing sector will be released before the bell this morning, at 8:30 a.m. EST. October consumer price index, probably will show a dip of 0.5%, after being flat in September. Housing starts to fall 5% from September's levels to 780,000, according to Briefing.com. Building permits are expected to drop to 772,000 in October from 786,000. At 2 p.m., the Fed will release the minutes from its last meeting in which it cut rates by a half percentage point.
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