NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - Stock investors will look for good news on oil and fuel supplies and home sales soon after the market opens Wednesday, although a strong economic reading raises new interest rate concerns.

U.S. stock futures were mixed in early trading, although a comparison to fair value indicated a higher open for U.S. markets. Futures had been higher before an 8:30 am. ET government report that showed durable goods orders surged 6.1 percent in March, far above the 1.8 percent gain forecast by economists. The February reading was also revised higher.

The news sent Treasury prices sharply lower, lifting the yield on the benchmark 10-year note to 5.11 percent from 5.07 percent on Tuesday.

"It's going to make the markets a bit jittery, especially when the market is conditioned to be data-dependent," said Anthony Chan, chief economist for JPMorgan Private Client Services.

Chan said stocks could be cheered by strong earnings news, such as better-than-expected results from aircraft maker Boeing (Research) reported Wednesday. Still, shares of that Dow component were slightly lower in pre-market trading on Inet.

Oil prices were lower in early trading ahead of the U.S. fuel inventory report, which is due at 10:30 a.m. ET.

The June light crude futures contract for NYMEX fell 30 cents to $72.58 in electronic trading, while the June contract for Brent crude lost 21 cents to $73.

While The Wall Street Journal reported that Iranian Oil Minister Kazem Vaziri Hamaneh promised not to cut exports due to the current dispute over the country's nuclear program, Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, threatened to hide the country's nuclear operations in preparation for a possible attack from the United States.

The country faces a Friday deadline from the United Nations Security Council to suspend enrichment of uranium.

At 10 a.m. ET, the Census Bureau will report on new home sales in March. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com forecast that sales rebounded slightly to an annual pace of 1.1 million from 1.08 million seen when there was a sharp decline in February. Tuesday existing home sales came in much stronger than expected, but new home sales are a much more current reading on the state of the real estate market, and there have been numerous signs of slowing demand for housing in other reports.

Major markets in Asia closed higher Wednesday on strong earnings news from some leading exporters, including Honda Motor (Research). Major European markets also were up in early trading. The dollar was up against the yen and the euro.

Online retailing bellwether Amazon.com (Research) reported sharply lower first-quarter profit that was in line with forecasts, but sales beat forecasts and the company gave strong guidance going forward. Shares of Amazon gained about 0.5 percent in after-hours trading.

_______________

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