NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - Stock futures rebounded slightly following a mixed inflation report Tuesday, but were still poised to open lower following a disappointing earnings from the tech bellwether Oracle, and comments from new Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.

U.S. stock futures were off earlier lows, although a comparison to fair value indicated a mixed open for broader markets and a lower start for the Nasdaq.

Investors and economists got their first major economic reading of the week as the government reported that wholesale prices for February fell a greater-than-expected 1.4 percent.

Economists surveyed by Briefing.com forecast that PPI fell 0.2 percent on lower energy prices after a 0.3 percent increase in January.

The so-called core PPI, which excludes often volatile food and energy prices, rose 0.3 percent, beating expectations of a 0.1 percent increase, but less that the 0.4 percent rise in January.

Weighing on the Nasdaq was late Monday news that software provider Oracle (Research) reported improved fiscal third-quarter earnings that topped forecasts. But shares of Oracle fell due to weaker than expected sales of its database software. Shares of Oracle were off 4 percent in heavy trading in Frankfurt early Friday.

Investors also turned their attention to a Monday evening speech in New York by recently appointed Fed chief Ben Bernanke. During his talk, Bernanke noted that having long-term interest rates below short-term rates is not necessarily a signal of a recession ahead and that the so-called "inverted yield curve" would not influence the central bank's monetary policy.

The statement seemed to signal the Fed could continue to raise interest rates beyond its March 27-28 meeting, at which another quarter-percentage point hike is widely expected.

"You got the sense going into the speech that perhaps he would hint toward the end of this cycle (of interest rate hikes)," said Art Hogan, chief market analyst at Jefferies & Co. "So I think it (the speech) is mildly disappointing, and I think the market is pricing in that disappointment. Also Oracle didn't help. We also had high expectations that it would do better."

Treasury prices were lower on the Fed chairman's comments, lifting the yield on the benchmark 10-year note to 4.67 percent from 4.66 percent late Monday ahead of Bernanke's speech. The dollar was higher against the euro and the yen.

Major markets in Asia closed lower Tuesday on Bernanke's comments, although markets in Japan were closed for a holiday. Major European markets were down in early trading.

Oil prices were mixed after a sharp fall in trading Monday, as oil briefly broke below the $60 benchmark.

The April light crude futures contract for NYMEX fell 30 cents to $60.12 a barrel in electronic trading after falling as low as $59.84, while the May contract for Brent crude was down 4 cents to $61.30.

In other corporate news, search engine Google (Research) is set to release a new online financial-news-and-data service Tuesday, in a move that could shake up established finance sites including those of Yahoo! (Research) and Microsoft (Research). Shares of Microsoft were slightly lower in heavy Frankfurt trading, while Yahoo shares slipped 0.4 percent.

Microsoft is weighing the introduction of a portable game and music device could create more competition for not only Sony (Research) and Nintendo but also Apple Computer (Research), according to published reports.

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