Futures Mixed Ahead of Trade, Inflation Data

The government reports are due at 8:30 a.m. EDT.

Investors will be looking for insights into the White House's plan for remaking the rules that govern Wall Street. The president is expected to outline a plan Wednesday that would give new powers to the Federal Reserve to supervise large financial institutions considered too big to fail. It also would establish a consumer protection agency to govern lending and credit and new rules that would reach into unregulated regions of the financial markets.

In other market action, bond prices mostly fell. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, rose to 3.67% from 3.65% late Tuesday.

Major markets overseas mostly lost ground. In afternoon trading, Britain's FTSE 100 fell 0.8%, Germany's DAX index lost 0.8%, and France's CAC-40 fell 0.9%. Japan's Nikkei stock average rose 0.9%.

The dollar was mixed against other major currencies, while gold prices rose.

Light, sweet crude fell 38 cents to $70.09 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.