US stock futures pointed to a weaker open on Wednesday amid a sharp selloff in overseas markets.

At 8:57 am ET, the S&P 500 retreated 11.90 points to 977.70 The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 95 points to 9112. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 21 points to 1566.

Early on Wednesday, Deere (NYSE: ) reported that its fiscal third quarter net income fell to $420 million, or 99 cents per share, from $575.2 million, or $1.32 per share, in the year ago period. Revenue dropped 24% to $5.89 billion.

Late on Tuesday, pc maker Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: ) reported third quarter net income declined to $1.6 billion, or 67 cents a share, from $2 billion, or 80 cents a share, in the same period last year. Revenue slipped 2% to $27.5 billion from the year-ago quarter's $28 billion.

Drugmaker Eli Lilly and Co (NYSE: ) said on Wednesday that it would discontinue trials of its experimental osteoporosis drug and not seek U.S. approval of the product, due to side effects and its failure to achieve secondary goals in one large study.

Warren Buffet wrote in an opinion column in the New York Times that although the United States economy is out of the emergency room and appears to be on a slow path to recovery, the nation will need to deal with the side effects of enormous dosages of "monetary medicine" that continue to be administered.

The Mortgage Bankers Association said its seasonally adjusted index of mortgage applications, which includes both purchase and refinance loans, for the week ended August 14 increased 5.6 percent to 527.0.

European stocks retreated in afternoon trade. At 13:06 pm London time, the UK FTSE lost 21.04 points or 0.45% to 4,664.74. The German DAX and French CAC decreased 0.54% and 0.37% respectively.

Asian stocks finished with losses. The Nikkei 225 fell 80.96 points or 0.79% to 10,204. The Hang Seng index of Hong Kong slumped 352.04 points or 1.73% to 19,954.23.
Chinese stocks finished steeply lower, with Shanghai Composite Index falling 4.3% and the Shenzhen Composite Index ending down 4.9%.

NYMEX crude oil for September delivery declined as much as 65 cents to $68.54 a barrel in electronic trading

Disclosure: Author doesn’t own any of the stocks mentioned here.