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U.S. stock futures advanced Wednesday morning, with investors hoping to bounce back following Tuesday's declines. However, concerns from overseas that certain countries could find it hard to repay their debt and even default marred the general mood. Discussions about TARP and the the health care reform bill are also in focus this morning.World stock markets fell Wednesday amid ongoing worries about sovereign credit risks and ahead of a key budgetary policy statement from the British government. Concerns of a global debt crisis rose recently after Moody's said the U.S. and Britain must get a grip on their public finances to avoid threats to their top credit ratings and Fitch downgraded its rating on Greece. The finance minister of Greece on Wednesday pledged that the country would not default on its debt obligations.
The British finance minister is set to deliver his latest projections about the country's debt later on Wednesday and analysts predict that Britain will end up borrowing a staggering 190 billion pounds ($310 billion) in the fiscal year 2009-10. The pound, naturally, will also be in the spotlight.
In Asia, markets generally declined. Dubai's market sank over 6% on confusion over its debt problems. Also, figures showed that Japan grew far less than originally expected in the third quarter. But not all news was bad, the International Monetary Fund raised South Korea's economic growth forecast for 2010.
In the U.S., the Obama administration plans to announce on Wednesday that it intends to extend the life of the $700 billion financial bailout fund until next October, administration officials said. Also, Obama will bring both party leaders to the White House on Wednesday to promote his jobs proposals and will make a statement afterward.And Democrats say they are getting close to pushing Obama's health care bill through the Senate.
On the economic front, at 10 a.m. Eastern, October wholesale inventories are due, and are expected to have declined after a 0.8% fall the month before.
Oil bounced off weekly lows to above $73 a barrel ahead of weekly inventory data due out at 10:30 a.m.
Of stocks in focus, Texas Instruments (TXN) fell after a sales forecast disappointed some investors even as it lifted fourth-quarter outlook.
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