U.S. stock-index futures traded flat, with focus on banks after the Federal Reserve's bank stress test results.
Mini Dow industrial average futures inched 3.00 points higher to 13,112.00. The Nasdaq Futures edged 2.00 points lower to 2,692.00. Standard and Poor's 500 futures lost 0.90 points to 1,389.80.
The Fed said most U.S. banks had passed its annual stress tests, while Citigroup Inc. and MetLife Inc. fell short.
On the economic front, U.S. import and export prices each gained 0.4 percent in February, while economists expected a 0.6 percent increase in import prices and a 0.2 percent increase in export prices. In January, import prices rose 0.3 percent and export prices advanced 0.2 percent.
On Tuesday, U.S. stocks closed on a sharply higher note, buoyed by strong domestic retail sales data and Federal Reserve's positive view of the economy.
Hot Stocks Of The Day: (C, MET, STI, BAC, LSI, PSUN)
After failing in the Federal Reserve's bank stress tests, Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) retreated 4 percent to $34.99 in premarket, Metlife Inc. (NYSE:MET) also lost 3.8 percent to $37.95 and SunTrust Banks Inc. (NYSE:STI) declined 4.74 percent to $21.51.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) boosted its quarterly dividend by 5 cents to $0.30 a share, becoming the first bank to do so following the Federal Reserve's latest stress tests. JPM also announced a new $15 billion stock buyback plan. JPM edged higher in premarket.
US Bancorp (NYSE: USB) also boosted its quarterly dividend by 56 percent to $0.195 and also announced a new 100 million share buyback program. The stock ended 4.48 percent higher at $31.01 on Tuesday after passing the stress test.
Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) advanced 2.47 percent to $8.53 in premarket following the stress test results.
LSI Corp. (NYSE:LSI) gained 3 percent to $8.80 in premarket trading after the chip maker boosted its quarterly outlook, citing a stronger-than-forecast hard disk drive market recovery and ramp of flash-based products. The Milpitas, California-based company now expects non-GAAP earnings per share from continuing operations in the range of $0.12 to $0.16 from prior expectations of $0.09 to $0.15. Revenue is now projected to be between $585 million and $615 million from $550 million to $590 million projected earlier.
Pacific Sunwear of California Inc. (NASDAQ:PSUN) dropped 14.3 percent in premarket. The company guided first quarter loss wider than Street's view. It expects adjusted loss from continuing operations of $0.26 to $0.34 per share, while analysts' expect loss of $0.24 per share.
Global Markets:
The European markets traded higher boosted by Fed's positive view on economy, with Germany's DAX rallying 1.08 percent to trade at 7,071.58. France's CAC40 gained 0.64 percent to 3,572.94. Britain's FTSE 100 traded at 5,976.30, up 0.34 percent.
Asia markets ended mixed. The Shanghai Composite Index slumped 2.59 percent to end at $2,392.27. Hong Kong's Hang Seng declined 0.15 percent to close at 21,307.89. Japan's Nikkei 225 rallied 1.53 percent to end at 10,050.52. India's Sensex closed at 17,919.30, up 0.59 percent.
Market Scan:
Ahead of the opening bell, crude oil futures weakened 0.30 percent to $106.39 per barrel, while gold retreated 2.45 percent to $1,652.7 per ounce.
In the currency market, the euro traded 0.27 percent lower against the U.S. dollar at 1.3048, and the British pound fell against the greenback at 1.5680. The dollar advanced 0.72 against the Japanese yen to 83.5600.