U.S. stock futures slip before Bernanke testimony - MarketWatch

U.S. stock futures slip before Bernanke testimony - MarketWatch

Oil futures rose 12 cents to $101 a barrel and gold futures rose $14.70 to $963.60 an ounce.

Yields on 10-year Treasury bonds fell to 3.82%.

Elsewhere, Amgen (AMGN:

AMGN

and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ:

JNJ

each lost 2% in Frankfurt after a study published late Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that treating anemia with erythropoiesis-stimulating agents increases the risk of certain blood clots and death among cancer patients.

Autodesk (ADSK:

ADSK

fell 12% in pre-open trade after the design software maker's virtually flat earnings came in below analyst estimates.

Microsoft (MSFT:

MSFT

was fined 899 million euros ($1.35 billion) by the European Commission for failing to comply with its 2004 antitrust ruling. It brings the fines levied by the European Commission against Microsoft for alleged anti-competitive activity to 1.68 billion euros.

Luxury home builder Toll Brothers (TOL:

TOL

swung to a fiscal first-quarter loss of $96 million and said "ceaseless talk" about a recession is dampening the mood of consumers.

Nortel Networks (NT:

NT

announced a plan to cut 2,100 jobs and shift another 1,000 to low-cost destinations as the Toronto telecom-equipment maker reported an $844 million fourth-quarter loss. Nortel shares fell 3.9% in pre-open trade.

International markets were mixed. Asian stocks generally rose, led by a 3.1% advance from the Hang Seng after a Hong Kong tax break package, while stocks in Europe were lower, with the FTSE 100 losing 0.7% in London.