HONG KONG (Reuters) - U.S. stock futures fell on Tuesday on uncertainty about a White House financial rescue package after a CNBC report of an altered form of a "bad bank" plan to buy toxic assets from commercial banks.
Investors were waiting for a speech later by U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner in which he is expected to unveil details about the plan.
CNBC initially reported the "bad bank" aspect was being dropped, but later updated its report to say a new form of the plan will essentially combine public and private resources to take bad assets off banks' books.
Funding for the rescue plan is unlikely to exceed the $350 billion currently available under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), CNBC reported, citing a source familiar with the plan.
"Depending on what Geithner announces, you are still going to have a prolonged discussion about it in Congress. There's not going to be any easy passage," said Lorraine Tan, director of research, Asia for Standard & Poor's in Singapore.
"If something is announced and people aren't convinced about how well it's going to work, it doesn't provide clarity to the situation."
S&P 500 futures were down 1.1 percent, Dow futures down 0.9 percent and Nasdaq futures off 1.1 percent.
