Wall Street seen opening higher as Fed budget eyed

(Reuters) - Stock index futures pointed to a higher opening on Wednesday, as optimism for government fiscal packages overshadowed weak corporate outlooks which had pressured Wall Street in the previous session, sending the main indexes down over 2 percent.

* At 4:55 a.m. EST S&P 500 futures, Dow Jones futures and Nasdaq 100 futures were up 1.3 to 1.6 percent.

* No S&P 500 companies are expected to report earnings on Wednesday.

* Shares of automakers will remain in focus, after officials said the House of Representatives could vote as early as Wednesday on a $15 billion bail out and restructuring. General Motors shares in Frankfurt were up 4.3 percent, while Ford shares in Frankfurt rose 1.2 percent.

* In company news, Intel Corp said on Wednesday it had filed a formal complaint to overturn an earlier South Korean antitrust ruling that found the world's biggest semiconductor maker had abused its dominant market position.

* Boeing may suffer from China's move to encourage airlines to cancel or postpone plane deliveries due in 2009 as a slowing economy curbs demand for air travel.

* Biotechnology industry executives plan to visit Congress on Wednesday to ask for a temporary change in the tax law, the New York Times wrote. The change would let money-losing companies get cash from the government now, in exchange for tax credits they would pledge not to take if they eventually become profitable.

* Miners are likely to be impacted by news that Rio Tinto will cut 13 percent of its workforce, slash capital spending and boost asset sales as it battles a collapse in commodity prices.

* Grim economic news continues to bite. The U.S. economy is likely to shrink 1.1 percent next year as job losses mount, according to a survey released on Wednesday that showed forecasters chopping their estimates of U.S. output.

* The Mortgage Bankers Association releases the weekly mortgage market index for the week ended December 5 versus the prior week at 8 a.m. EST.

* The Commerce Department releases wholesale inventories for October at 11 a.m. EST. Economists in a Reuters survey forecast inventories to fall 0.2 percent in October versus a 0.1 decline the previous month.

* Investors will be eyeing the Treasury Department's November budget report at 2 p.m. EST. November's budget gap is seen widening to $172.5 billion, from $98.24 billion in November 2007.

* The degree of risk aversion among investors was highlighted amid growing fears about a deepening U.S. recession, as three-month Treasury rates briefly dipped below zero on Tuesday, with the Treasury selling $30 billion of four-week bills at an unprecedented rate of 0.000 percent.

* The U.S. Federal Reserve is considering issuing its own debt for the first time, the Wall Street Journal said, in order to provide the central bank with more flexibility to tackle the financial crisis.

(Reporting by Sarah Marsh)