LONDON (Reuters) - Stock futures point to a mixed opening on Wall Street on Wednesday as mounting fears over the profit picture eclipse signs that the credit crisis is easing, but forecast-beating earnings from Apple and Yahoo's plans to cut jobs could lift tech shares.
* By 4:09 a.m. EDT, S&P 500 futures were down 0.8 percent, Dow Jones futures down 0.4 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures up 0.6 percent.
* Investors awaited quarterly results from bellwether companies such as ConocoPhillips
* European stocks were down around 2 percent, with heavyweight mining and energy firms knocked lower by a selloff in commodity prices amid rising fears of a global recession.
* Mining firm BHP Billiton
* U.S. crude oil futures fell $3 a barrel to just above $69 on Wednesday on rising worries that output cuts by producer group OPEC will not be enough to offset weakening energy demand in leading consumers.
* Japan's Nikkei average slid 6.8 percent to its lowest close in a week, battered down as Sony Corp <6758.T> and other exporters fell after the yen rose against the euro and worries about the global economy deepened.
* Gary Stern, a top U.S. Federal Reserve policy-maker, said on Tuesday the current U.S. economic downturn could be worse than the 1990-91 recession, with growth restrained for as long as one to three years.
* Apple Inc reported a stronger-than-expected 26 percent rise in quarterly profit, helped by strong sales of its new iPhone, and its shares rose 13 percent after the bell on Tuesday.
* Yahoo Inc posted sharply lower quarterly profit on nearly flat sales, but its shares rose 8 percent after the bell on the Internet media company's plan to cut at least 10 percent of its workforce to save costs.
* General Motors
* U.S. stocks fell on Tuesday, as commodity-related shares sank on fears of a global recession and a flurry of disappointing earnings heightened worries about the deteriorating profit outlook. (Reporting by Blaise Robinson; Editing by Quentin Bryar)
