Bears still have the wheel

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- U.S. stocks could be hit by subprime worries again Wednesday, as problems with those risk mortgage loans caused General Motors to post far worse than expected results.

At 8:46a.m. ET, S&P and Nasdaq futures were both sharply lower. Futures had been pointing to a flat to mixed open before the disappointing results from GM.

General Motors (Charts) nearly broke even in its core North American auto operations in the fourth quarter, reversing a big loss from a year earlier. But it badly missed Wall Street forecasts as the rising problem with subprime mortgage lending caused it to give extra $1 billion to its GMAC finance arm when it closed on the sale of 51 percent of the unit during the quarter.

Shares of Dow component GM fell almost 2 percent in pre-market trading.

Wall Street firm Lehman Brothers (Charts) posted record earnings for the most recent period, topping forecasts. The company's statement did not give any details of its own exposure to the subprime market, which is believed to be among the largest of Wall Street firms.

H&R Block (Charts), the largest U.S. income tax preparer, said late Tuesday it was delaying filing its quarterly results after turmoil in the subprime mortgage market forced it to write down assets at its Option One Mortgage Corp., the nation's No. 8 subprime lender with 2006 loans of $28.8 billion to borrowers with riskier credit last year.

The problem for U.S. markets follows Tuesday's drop in U.S. stocks Tuesday continued in trading in Asia, where major indexes all closed lower Wednesday. Stocks were also down in Europe in early trading.

Oil was higher, rebounding from a big selloff Tuesday. U.S. light crude rose 28 cents to $58.14 a barrel in electronic trading, ahead of the 10:30 a.m. ET report on U.S. fuel inventories.

Treasury prices were little changed, leaving the the yield on the 10-year note near the 4.49 percent reached late Tuesday. The dollar was higher against the euro but lower against the yen.

Among stocks in the news early Wednesday: Wellpoint (Charts), the nation's No. 1 health insurer has begun notifying 75,000 members of its Empire Blue Cross and Blue Shield unit in New York that a compact disc holding their vital medical and other personal information had disappeared, according to a report in the New York Times.

Citigroup (Charts) announced it plans to launch its tender offer for Japanese brokerage Nikko Cordial on Thursday. It also announced plans to add stafff an expand operations in China.

Juniper Networks (Charts) said Tuesday its chief financial officer and one other top executive were leaving the company, in connection with what the data networking firm said was an ongoing review of its growth plans.

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