Stock index futurescut their gains to turn flat Wednesday following a handful of tepid economic news and amid fears over the ongoing European debt crisis, but Goldman Sachs earnings helped limit losses.
Goldman Sachs posted earnings that fell, but still beat Wall Street estimates, sending shares of the investment bank higher in pre-market trading.
Meanwhile, regional bank Bank of New York Mellon missed estimates on profit of 48 cents per share, against market expectations of 54 cents.
European shares shaved their lossesfollowing successful German and Portuguese debt auctions and after a report that the IMF may be considering an increase to its lending capacity.
Meanwhile, Greece will be resuming talks with its international creditorsthat broke down last week on a debt swap plan crucial to Athens' chances of avoiding a messy bankruptcy.
Yahoo rallied after co-founder Jerry Yang quit the companyin order to appease shareholders.
Ebay is slated to post earnings after-the-bell.
On the economic front, producer prices slipped 0.1 percent in December, according to the Labor Department, as companies paid less for gasoline and vegetables, although higher prices for light motor trucks pushed a measure of underlying inflation higher. Economists had expected prices to gain 0.1 percent, according to a Reuters poll.
U.S. industrial output advanced 0.4 percent in December, according to the Federal Reserve, rebounding from the previous month's 0.3 percent decline. However, the figure was still below expectations for a 0.5 percent gain.
Meanwhile, weekly mortgage applications soared 20 percent last week on a surge in refinancing applications, according to the Mortgage Bankers association.
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On Tap This Week:
WEDNESDAY: Housing market index; Earnings from Ebay
THURSDAY: CPI, housing starts, jobless claims, oil inventories; Earnings from BofA, Morgan Stanley, Sony Ericsson, UnitedHealth, AmEx, Google, IBM, Microsoft, Capital One
FRIDAY: Existing home sales; Earnings from GE, Schlumberger
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