NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Stocks looked likely to stall at the start of trading Wednesday on comments from members of the Federal Reserve that more interest rate hikes are in still in the pipeline.

U.S. stock futures were little changed, indicating a flat to slightly lower opening for stocks.

Tuesday evening, Philadelphia Fed President Anthony Santomero said the central bank needs to keep raising rates to make sure that recent energy price spikes and other inflationary pressures do not hurt the economy. His comments followed earlier remarks by Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher about the need to fight inflation, comments that sent U.S. stock indexes to a lower close.

Oil prices edged upward of the 10:30 a.m. ET report on U.S. fuel inventories that could stir up both energy and equity markets.

The November light crude futures contract for NYMEX gained 4 cents to $63.94 a barrel in electronic trading, while the November contract for Brent crude rose 15 cents to $61.37.

David Kelly, economic adviser for Putnam Investments, said he thinks that the early weakness in futures is more due to concerns over what the inventory report will hold than with worries over the Fed officials' latest comments. He said the Fed comments do little to change the already well-estabilished expectation of quarter-percentage point rate hikes at its remaining meetings this year.

"There's clearly a lack of interest in investing while the economy works through these Katrina issues," Kelly said. "We need to get a clearer sense of when gasoline prices are going to come back to normal. When I talk to retail investors, a lot are frozen by the level of uncertainty those issues create."

Major markets in Asia closed lower Wednesday following the comments from the Fed officials. Major European markets also were lower in early trading.

Treasury prices were higher, cutting the yield on the 10-year note to 4.35 percent from the 4.37 percent level late Tuesday. The dollar lost ground against on the euro and the yen.

In corporate news, the Detroit News reported that General Motors (Research) and the United Auto Workers union are close to the company's long-sought goal of an agreement on health care coverage that could trim $1 billion in costs off the $6 billion health care coverage bill for the embattled No. 1 automaker,

The only major economic report due Wednesday is the Institute for Supply Management's report on the service sector. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com forecast that the index will fall to 60 for September from 65 in August. But any reading above 50 still indicates growth.

For a more detailed look at the markets before the open, click here.