US stock futures advanced on Wednesday after a government data showed that durable goods orders jumped unexpectedly in February.

At 8:21 am ET, Standard & Poor's 500 Index futures advanced 1.60 points to 805. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures gained 10 points to 7630.

According to Department of Commerce, orders for durable goods unexpectedly rose 3.4% in February. Economists on average had projected a decline of 2.5%.

US stocks finished lower on Tuesday as shares of financials retreated amid skepticism over Geithner's bank plan. In a testimony delivered on Tuesday before the House Financial Services Committee Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke asked for more power to prevent an AIG like situation in future. The two officials also called for greater regulation of financial firms.

Struggling video rental chain Blockbuster Inc (NYSE: BBI) plans to partner with TiVo Inc. (NASDAQ: TIVO) to deliver Blockbuster’s digital movie library over the internet directly to the televisions of people with TiVo digital video recorders.

Newell Rubbermaid (NYSE: NWL) on Tuesday slashed its quarterly dividend by 52% to 5 cents a share in order to protect its investment-grade rating.

Late on Tuesday, Standard & Poor's Ratings Services lowered its counterparty credit rating on CIT Group Inc. (NYSE: CIT) to BBB/A-3" from "BBB+/A-2 citing weakness in core earnings.

S&P also revised its rating outlook on Berkshire Hathaway Inc (NYSE: BRK-A) to "negative" from "stable."

On the earnings front, Red Hat (NYSE: RHT) is due to report its quarterly report today.

Jabil Circuit Inc. (NYSE: JBL) yesterday announced a wider fiscal second-quarter loss of $42.1 million, or 20 cents a share, compared with a loss of $24 million, or 12 cents a share, in the prior year quarter. On an adjusted basis, the company reported earnings of $27.3 million, or 13 cents a share for the latest quarter. Revenue slipped 5.6% to $2.9 billion from $3.06 billion.

On the front of economic data, existing home sales for the month of February is scheduled for release at 10:00 am ET.

European stocks retreated in afternoon trade. At 12:20 pm London time, the U.K. FTSE dropped 38.83 points or 0.99% to 3,872.63. The German DAX and French CAC slipped 0.79% and 0.63% respectively.

Asian stocks finished lower. The Nikkei 225 fell 8.31 points or 0.10% to 8,479.99. The Hang Seng index of Hong Kong plunged 288.23 points or 2.07% to 13,622.11.

NYMEX crude oil for May delivery declined as much as $1.28 or 2.4% to $52.70 a barrel.

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