US Stock Futures Down; All Eyes On Bernanke

US stock futures are lower this morning, ahead of Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke's congressional testimony. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled 34 points to 15,357.00 and S&P 500 index futures fell 4 points to 1,667.20. Nasdaq 100 futures dropped 3.50 points to 3,067.25. US stocks closed lower on Tuesday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropping 0.21% to 15,451.85, the S&P 500 index falling 0.37% to 1,676.26 and the Nasdaq 100 index declining 0.25% to 3,598.50. The MBA purchase applications index will be released at 7:00 a.m. ET, while housing starts data for June will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke will testify before the House Financial Services Committee at 10:00 a.m. ET. The EIA weekly report on petroleum inventories will be released at 10:30 a.m. ET, while the Federal Reserve will release its Beige Book report at 2:00 p.m. ET. Abbott Laboratories ABT is expected to report its Q2 earnings at $0.44 per share on revenue of $5.52 billion. Mattel MAT is expected to report its Q2 earnings at $0.32 per share on revenue of $1.22 billion. Intel INTC is estimated to post its Q2 earnings at $0.40 per share on revenue of $12.90 billion. SanDisk SNDK is expected to post its Q2 earnings at $0.93 per share on revenue of $1.40 billion. Bank of America BAC is projected to report its Q2 earnings at $0.25 per share on revenue of $22.79 billion. eBay EBAY is expected to post its Q2 earnings at $0.64 per share on revenue of $3.89 billion. International Business Machines IBM is projected to post its Q2 earnings at $3.77 per share on revenue of $25.37 billion. St. Jude Medical STJ is estimated to report its Q2 earnings at $0.94 per share on revenue of $1.36 billion. American Express Company AXP is estimated to post its Q2 earnings at $1.22 per share on revenue of $8.28 billion. Textron TXT is expected to report its Q2 earnings at $0.38 per share on revenue of $3.01 billion. U.S. Bancorp USB is estimated to report its Q2 earnings at $0.76 per share on revenue of $5.00 billion. Yahoo! YHOO reported upbeat second-quarter earnings. However, the company cut its full-year outlook. CSX CSX reported better-than-expected second-quarter earnings. European markets were lower today. The STOXX Europe 600 Index dropped 0.37%, London's FTSE 100 index dropped 0.45%, French CAC 40 Index declined 0.51% and German DAX 30 index fell 0.61%. Asian markets ended mostly higher, with Japan's Nikkei Stock Average rising 0.11%, China's Shanghai Composite dropping 1.01% and Australia's ASX/S&P500 falling 0.04%. Hong Kong's Heng Seng Index surged 0.28% and India's Sensex gained 0.35%.