Investing.com – U.S. futures were mostly flat on Wednesday as investors wait for meeting minutes from the Federal Reserve.
The S&P 500 futures fell one and a half points or 0.07% as of 6:28 AM ET (11:28 GMT) while Dow futures were down five points or 0.03%. Tech heavy Nasdaq 100 futures inched down a point and half or 0.03%.
Among the biggest losers before the morning bell was banking conglomerate HSBC Holdings (LON:HSBA) PLC ADR (NYSE:HSBC), which fell 1.28%. Biopharmaceutical firm MannKind Corp (NASDAQ:MNKD) also tumbled 4.620%.
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) was down 0.07% after it said it would triple spending on research as it tries to keep pace with Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL).
Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) decreased 3.36% on news that it would sell $1 billion in new shares.
IT firm Helios and Matheson Analytics Inc (NASDAQ:HMNY) was the biggest winner in pre-market trading, jumping 4.88%.
Some companies will also begin reporting their earnings on Wednesday. BlackRock Inc (NYSE:BLK) will release its earnings before the morning bell. The firm was up 0.32%.
Meanwhile Delta Air Lines Inc (NYSE:DAL)fell 0.09%. The airline firm is also slated to release its earnings before markets open.
Investors will also be keeping an eye on Federal Reserve September meeting minutes coming out at 2:00 PM ET (19:00 GMT) for any hints of a rate hike in December. San Francisco Fed President John Williams will also speak at 2:40 PM ET (19:40 GMT).
In Europe stocks were mixed as Catalan independence was postponed. Germany’s DAX increased 0.09% while in France the CAC 40 fell 0.08% and Spain’s IBEX rallied 1.57%. In London , he FTSE 100 was down 0.04%.
In commodities, gold futures fell 0.15% to $1,291.91 an ounce while crude oil was up 0.77% to $51.31 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of major currencies, fell to 93.01.