US stock futures edged lower on Tuesday on fears of a prolonged global recession. Investors remained anxious as uncertainty surrounds the fate of automakers.

At 8:31 am ET, Standard & Poor's 500 Index futures expiring in December fell 9.40 points to 841.60. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures dropped 58 points to 8201. Nasdaq Composite Index futures shrank 6.25 points to 1152.25.

A release by Department of Labor on Tuesday showed Producer Price Index dropped a record 2.8% in October. Core producer prices, which exclude food and energy, rose 0.4% in October.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson are scheduled to testify before the House Financial Services Committee on Tuesday.

Apart from this, chief executives of the "Big Three", Detroit based automakers, General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC and the head of the United Auto Workers union will testify at a Senate Banking Committee hearing on Tuesday.

Late on Monday, Jerry Yang 40, who also happens to be the co-founder of Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO), announced that he will step down as CEO as soon as a replacement is found. The announcement didn't came as a surprise to many as it was expected after Yang failed to strike a deal with Microsoft (NYSE: MSFT) and Google (NASDAQ: GOOGLE). In a statement Yang said "I will continue to focus on global strategy and to do everything I can to help Yahoo realize its full potential and enhance its leading culture of technology and product excellence and innovation." Shares of Yahoo surged over 10% in European trade on renewed hopes Microsoft deal.

World's largest PC maker, Hewlett-Packard Co.(NYSE: HPQ) said that its fourth quarter net income rose to 84 cents a share from 81 cents in the corresponding quarter a year ago. Sales climbed 19% to $33.6 billion. Excluding one time charges, company earned $1.03 a share, exceeding average analyst estimates of $1. Palo Alto, California-based company said that adjusted earnings for the current fiscal year will range between $3.88 and $4.03 a share, higher than the average analyst estimate of $3.86 a share. Shares of HP rose over 12% in pre market trade.

Citigroup (NYSE: C) fell over 5% in Frankfurt. On Monday Citigroup announced that it is plans to slash about 53,000 jobs in the near-term and to cut expenses by 20%.

J.P Morgan (NYSE: JPM) too dropped over 5%.

Home improvement retailer, Home Depot (NYSE: HD) announced its third  quarter profit dropped 31% to $756 million, or 45 cents per share, from$1.09 billion, or 60 cents per share in the same quarter a year earlier. Revenue fell 6% to $17.78 billion. Analysts on an average expected the company to earn 38 cents per share on revenue of $17.74 billion.

European stocks were trading with losses in afternoon trade. At 13:12 London time, the U.K. FTSE dropped 66.17 points or 1.60% to 4,065.99. The German DAX and French CAC fell 1.87% and 1.84% respectively.

Asian stocks slumped on Tuesday. The Nikkei 225 finished at 8,328.41, down 194.17 points or 2.28%.  Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 613.64 points or 4.54% to 12,915.89.

NYMEX Crude oil for December delivery fell $2.09, or 3.7%, to settle at $54.95 per barrel.

Disclosure: Author does not own any of the stocks discussed here.