By Ryan Vlastelica
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock index futures dipped on Wednesday as weakness in equities markets overseas kept traders cautious ahead of upcoming U.S. data on durable goods orders and home sales.
New home sales figures for July will be released at 10 a.m., and economists in a Reuters survey expect no change from the 330,000 unit annual rate in June. A revival of the housing market is considered crucial for an economic recovery, and on Tuesday, weak existing home sales data sparked a sell-off that sent stocks to seven-week lows.
July durable goods orders are also due, and Wall Street is expecting a rise in orders of 2.8 percent after a 1.2 percent drop in June.
Standard & Poor's late on Tuesday cut its credit rating on Ireland and assigned it a negative outlook, expecting the country to face substantially higher costs to support its ailing financial institutions.
Japanese stocks hit a 16-month closing low as disappointment spread over the lack of policy action by Japan to rein in the strong yen. Japan's finance minister sharpened his rhetoric on the yen's steep gains after the Nikkei newspaper reported Japan may consider selling the yen in solo intervention if speculators drive it up.
S&P 500 futures fell 1 point and were slightly below fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures lost 8 points, and Nasdaq 100 futures slid 2.75 points.
American International Group Inc
JDS Uniphase Corp
Luxury homebuilder Toll Brothers Inc
The Dow and S&P 500 notched their fourth straight day of losses on Tuesday as the unexpectedly large drop in home sales ratcheted up concerns that the economic recovery is even weaker than feared.
(Editing by Padraic Cassidy)