NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Oil and oil-related stocks could attract some attention from Wall Street Wednesday in the wake of OPEC's decision to ramp up output to keep global prices from swelling back to nine-year highs.
Technology stocks could also get a boost after No. 1 long distance company AT&T Corp. said it plans to raise as much as $13 billion by issuing a separate tracking stock for its wireless-related services, and after Palm Inc. reported fiscal third-quarter earnings that beat analysts' forecasts.
Early indications suggest U.S. stocks will open higher.
 S&P futures on the Globex trading system were up 0.80 point at 1,531.00. That's 6.37 points above fair value for the futures -- a formula taking into account interest and dividend effects -- which was estimated by London traders at 1524.63. Typically, one point of difference between the futures index and fair value equals about eight points on the Dow Jones industrial average as trading opens.
On Tuesday, U.S. stocks ended lower after one of Wall Street's best-known strategists, Goldman Sachs' Abby Joseph Cohen, reduced the equity allocation in her model portfolio.
The Nasdaq composite index fell 124.56 points, or 2.5 percent, to 4,834.00. The Dow Jones industrial average declined 89.74, or 0.8 percent, to 10,936.11. The broader S&P 500 dropped 16.13 to 1,507.73.
In Asia Wednesday, the Tokyo's benchmark Nikkei index rose 332 points, or 1.6 percent, to close at 20,706.65. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index closed down 205 points, or 1.1 percent, at 18,096.32, while Singapore's Straits Times index declined 26.17 points, or 1.2 percent, to 2,181.46.
In morning trading in Europe Wednesday, London's benchmark FTSE 100 was down 51 points, or 0.7 percent, at 6,598.70. The Paris CAC 40 gained about 13 points, or 0.2 percent, to 6,536.91, while the electronically traded Xetra Dax index in Frankfurt was down 38 points, or 0.5 percent, at 7,894.04. Zurich's SMI was up almost 30 points, or 0.4 percent, at 7401.20.
In the Treasury market, the 30-year bond was little changed in early trade Wednesday with a yield at 5.99 percent. In the currency market, the dollar strengthened versus the euro, but lost ground against the yen. The euro was worth 95.65 cents Wednesday, compared with 96.13 cents in late trading Tuesday. Meanwhile, the dollar traded at 105.61 yen in early trading, compared with 105.88 yen in late trading Tuesday.
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The price of crude oil fell more than 3 percent in early trading in London as traders reacted to the decision by nine OPEC members to accept Saudi Arabia's plan to raise oil production.
Iran on Tuesday opted out of the agreement with other oil ministers from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries that may raise "official" production quotas by 1.45 million barrels a day. In reality, the cartel is expected to produce an additional 1.7 million barrels a day, in line with market expectations.
Driving prices lower, though, were additional assurances from Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil producer and exporter, that it will pump even more oil later this year if a resurgence in prices signals a need for greater supplies.
Benchmark Brent crude for May delivery fell 20 cents from its barrel settlement on Tuesday to $25.31. Crude oil for May delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange slid 44 cents to $26.65 a barrel in electronic trading.
 Calvin Schnure, an economist with Chase Securities, told CNN's Ahead of the Curve that prices for oil in the range that most of the OPEC countries seek should ensure that inflation doesn't accelerate, posing a threat to the U.S. economy. (496KB WAV) (496KB AIFF)
Only one economic report is slated for release Wednesday, February's new home sales, to be released by the Commerce Department. Analysts polled by Briefing.com expect new home sales gained by an annual rate of 875,000 units, a slightly slower pace than the 882,000 units recorded a month before.
In corporate news, AT&T Corp. (T: Research, Estimates) is likely to grab some of the spotlight Wednesday after the long-distance provider announced plans to launch a tracking stock for its wireless operations in a $13 billion initial public offering -- more than double the $5.5 billion raised by United Parcel Service (UPS: Research, Estimates) and the largest in IPO history.
AT&T plans to issue 360 million shares of AT&T Wireless Group tracking stock for between $26-$32 a share. The company plans to sell 306 million shares in the United States and Canada while offering the remaining 54 million shares overseas.
The company plans to use those funds to expand its rapidly growing wireless network, as well as for acquisitions, international growth and investments in start-up wireless technology companies.
Goldman Sachs & Co., Merrill Lynch & Co. and Salomon Smith Barney are global coordinators and joint book-running managers for the offering.
AT&T shares fell 7/16 Tuesday to 59-7/8.
Shares of Palm Inc. (PALM: Research, Estimates) could also see some activity Wednesday after the maker of hand-held computing devices reported better-than-expected fiscal third-quarter earnings.
Before one-time items, Palm reported income of $15.5 million, or 3 cents a share. Analysts polled by earnings tracker First Call had expected Palm to post a one-cent-a-share profit for the quarter, which ended Feb. 25.
The earnings were the first since Palm became a publicly traded company, and exclude separation and acquisition costs. 3Com (COMS: Research, Estimates) spun off the company earlier this month into its own publicly traded unit on the Nasdaq exchange.
Palm shares slipped 9/16 to 54-13/16 in Nasdaq trade ahead of the earnings release Tuesday. In extended-hours trading Palm stock rose 9/16 to 55-3/8.
Finally, computer chip maker Intel Corp. (INTC: Research, Estimates) could gain some attention Wednesday after it announced it will ship its new 600 megahertz and 566 megahertz Celeron chips, beginning Wednesday.
The chips are meant specifically for the sub-$1,000 personal computer market as Intel moves to stay ahead of rival chip maker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD: Research, Estimates) for bragging rights to the fastest processors.
Shares of Intel declined 7 Tuesday to 135-11/16. In extended-hours trading, the company's shares rose 9/16 to 136-1/4. 
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