LONDON (ShareCast) - US stock futures pointed to a low open on Wednesday, as investors awaited another raft of earnings and data on the housing markets.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was expected to open approximately down 57 points, while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq were expected to begin the session respectively four and seven points lower than Tuesday's close.

US stocks were mixed on Tuesday, largely unable to maintain Monday's gains as investors digested a plethora of earnings reports.

"Since the tech sector has become such a dominant source of profit growth, the next few days which include earnings from Facebook, Google, Apple and Twitter are an especially sensitive part of the earnings season," said Jasper Lawler, analyst at CMC Markets.

Yahoo! climbed 1% in pre-market trading despite reporting late on Tuesday that its first quarter earnings had missed estimates.

Harley Davidson rose 1% before the bell after closing the previous session down 9.8% on news that it had slashed its shipment outlook for the year.

Sports apparel retailer Under Armour slid in pre-market trading after posting a wider-than-expected drop in sales on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, investors will closely monitor corporate earnings from a host of Wall Street's heavyweights.

Coca-Cola, McDonald's and Boeing are all set to publish their quarterly results ahead of the opening bell, with AT&T, eBay and Facebook set to report after the close.

"Facebook is expected to post a jump in its year-on-year Q1 figures of 67% to $1.798bn, once again setting the standard for social media companies when it comes to monetising their user base," said IG's market analyst Alastair McCaig.

The economic calendar sees a report on February house prices from Federal Housing Finance Agency released at 14:00 BST, while the National Association of Realtors will release figures on sales of existing homes in March an hour later.

Elsewhere, in Japan, the Nikkei 225 gained 1.13% above 20,000 for the first time in 15 years, driven by a jump in trade balance to ¥229.3bn (£1.3bn) in March from a decline of ¥424.6bn the month before.

The dollar slid over almost 0.2% against the yen, losing over 0.8% and over 0.2% against the pound and the euro respectively, while gold futures slid 0.06%.

Oil prices declined slightly, with West Texas Intermediate losing 0.48% to $56.34 a barrel, while Brent crude dropped 0.37% to $61.85 a barrel.

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