NEW YORK (CNN/Money) -
U.S. stock markets look to get a lift at the open Wednesday from a slight retreat from another record price for oil futures.
Early Wednesday, futures pointed to a slightly higher open for the major indexes.
U.S. light crude touched a record $42.45 a barrel overnight before drifting back to $41.93, down 40 cents from Tuesday. Brent oil futures slipped 54 cents to $38.54 a barrel in London.
The retreat in oil prices came as the United Arab Emirates said it would lift output in June by 400,000 bpd. The UAE is the only OPEC member besides Saudi Arabia with any significant spare capacity. The comments came a day ahead of a meeting of OPEC ministers in Beirut to discuss raising oil production levels.
Still, traders are concerned about continued violence in Saudi Arabia. So far the attacks in Saudi Arabia have yet to affect production, but fears that future attacks could cut the flow of oil is being felt in the market, according to traders.
"Only Saudi Arabia has surplus capacity, and if its oil flow should be disrupted, it could bring a hopeless situation," Tony Nunan, manager at Mitsubishi Corp's oil unit in Tokyo, told Reuters Wednesday.
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For details of Tuesday's advance, click above.
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U.S. stocks managed modest gains Tuesday despite the rise of oil futures. The Dow Jones industrial average was up 0.1 percent, while the Nasdaq composite index rose 0.2 percent (see chart for details).
Asian-Pacific stocks ended mostly lower on the surge in oil prices; Japan's Nikkei index was off 0.6 percent. European markets rose in early trading. (Check the latest on world markets)
Among U.S. stocks trading in Europe, Walt Disney (DIS: Research, Estimates) was slightly higher. The media company said Wednesday it plans to launch three new TV channels in India, including a children's channel and one similar to ABC.
Treasury prices fell in early trading, sending the 10-year note yield up to 4.72 percent from 4.70 percent late Tuesday. The dollar gained against the yen, but was weaker versus the euro. Gold rose $2.20 to $396.80 an ounce.
Major automakers will report their May sales results Wednesday. Overall sales are forecast to reach an annual rate of 13.4 million vehicles, according to analysts surveyed by Briefing.com, up from 13 million in April.
Sales of sport/utility vehicles, which are an important profit driver for Detroit automakers, will be closely watched. Prior reports have shown the rising gas price starting to hurt sales of larger SUVs, although the SUV segment as a whole had yet to be affected.
In corporate news, American Airlines, a unit of AMR (AMR: Research, Estimates), and aircraft maker Boeing (BA: Research, Estimates) agreed to pay fines to the Federal Aviation Administration to settle federal allegations about maintenance procedure violations. AMR will pay a fine of $2.5 million, while Boeing agreed to pay $824,800.
News of the fines sent shares of AMR down almost 2 percent in after-hours trading Tuesday, while shares of Boeing were off about 1 percent in European trading early Wednesday, even as the company announced a ten-aircraft, $851 million sale to Air New Zealand.
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