NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Wall Street was poised for a modestly lower start Wednesday after Amazon.com's earnings came in below expectations, although it could get a boost from much better-than-expected results from General Motors.

At 7:14 a.m. ET, Nasdaq and S&P futures were narrowly higher, up from earlier lows. But a comparison to fair value still pointed to a lower open.

Lower prices and free shipping pushed the online retailer's second-quarter profit below last year's second quarter. Amazon (Charts) shares fell 10 percent in after-hours trading.

Troubled U.S. automaker GM (Charts) reported second quarter earnings excluding operations of $2.03 a share, much better than the 55 cent a share forecast of analysts surveyed by Briefing.com. It also reported its first profit in its auto operations since 2004, although it still had a narrow loss in its North American operations.

Shares of the Dow component were up more than than 6 percent in pre-market trading on Inet.

Dow component Boeing (Charts) is also due to report results before the open.

Oil rose ahead of the government inventory figures due after the opening bell. U.S. light crude gained 14 cents to $73.89 a barrel in electronic trading, while Brent crude trading in London was 28 cents higher at $73.56.

Treasury prices slipped, with the 10-year note yield rising to 5.08 percent from 5.06 percent late Tuesday. The dollar was lower in early trading against the euro and the yen.

Stocks in Asia lost ground, even as Japanese automaker Honda Motor (Charts) reported a 29 percent jump in earnings and raised its 2006 revenue target. Major indexes were narrowly higher in Europe.

In corporate news, Hewlett-Packard (Charts) agreed Tuesday to buy Mercury Interactive (Charts) for about $4.5 billion in stock, or $52 per share, in a bid to expand the computer maker's business software offerings. Shares of Dow component HP lost nearly 4 percent in after-hours trading on the news, while shares of Mercury soared 29 percent to $50.40.

Private equity firm Blackstone Group may start a bidding war to top the $21 billion agreement to buy No. 1 U.S. hospital chain HCA (Charts) announced Monday by a private equity group and the company's founding family, according to a report in The Times of London.

Drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline (Charts) announced that clinical tests had shown its bird flu vaccine for humans that uses only a very low dose of active ingredient has proved effective. The company is due to report results later Wednesday.

There are no major economic reports due early Wednesday, although at 2 p.m. ET the Federal Reserve will release its so called beige book, which details economic conditions in various regions around the country.

Related: More on U.S. markets ahead of the open.