NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - U.S. stocks figured to open lower Wednesday, with investors a little anxious about the first Congressional testimony by Ben Bernanke as Federal Reserve chairman and the weekly report on fuel supplies.

Stock futures were down ahead of Bernanke's 10 a.m. ET testimony before the House Financial Services committee on the state of the economy. Investors have been worried for several days that the new chairman will signal that the Fed has a way to go in raising rates to combat inflation.

But investors put those concerns on hold Tuesday after a dip in oil prices below $60 a barrel and a report showing much stronger-than-expected retail sales in January helped major market indexes rally 1 percent or more, taking the Dow over the 11,000 mark.

Oil prices were slightly higher, but still below the $60 mark, ahead of the 10:30 a.m. ET fuel inventory report. The March light crude futures contract for NYMEX gained 16 cents to $59.73 a barrel in electronic trading, while the April contract for Brent crude rose 19 cents to $59.71.

Rich Yamarone, director of economic research at Argus Research, said he thinks that some of the pressure on futures Wednesday could be due to trader uncertainty over what Bernanke will say, but he also thinks some of it could be profit taking after Tuesday's rally. He said he doubts that Bernanke's comments will be as market shaking as they have been built up to be in recent days.

"It's essentially the guy's first day on the job, he's not going to set the stage on fire," Yamarone said. "I think he's going to walk a very quiet line, and keep his cards relatively close to his vest. He could be upstaged by either undesirable or better-than-expected oil data."

Major markets in Asia closed lower Wednesday and major European markets were mixed in early trading.

Treasury prices were higher, trimming the yield on the benchmark 10-year note to 4.60 percent from 4.61 percent late Wednesday. The dollar was higher against the euro and little changed against the yen.

Economic reports due Wednesday include a key reading on manufacturing strength. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com forecast that industrial production was up only 0.2 percent in January after a 0.6 percent gain in December, while factories were expected to have been operating at 80.8 percent of capacity in January, compared to 80.7 percent in December.

After the close Wednesday, computer and peripheral maker Hewlett Packard (Research) is set to report improved results for its first fiscal quarter. Shares of the Dow component HP were up almost 2 percent in light European trading early Wednesday.

Executives from Internet companies such as Google (Research), Yahoo! (Research), Microsoft (Research) and Cisco Systems (Research) are set to appear before a hearing of the House Global Human Rights subcommittee looking at whether the companies were right or wrong to acquiesce with government restrictions on Internet use in China.

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