Stocks: Europe keeps investors sidelined

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- As U.S. investors prepare for the trading day ahead, Europe is once again front and center.

Dow Jones industrial average (INDU), S&P 500 (SPX) and Nasdaq (COMP) futures were slightly lower ahead of the opening bell. Stock futures indicate the possible direction of the markets when they open at 9:30 a.m. ET.

Investors are mulling over solid German bond auction results that came earlier in the day, as well as a report that showed the German economy contracted a 0.25% in the last three months of the year.

Following a meeting in Berlin, Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti and German Chancellor Angela Merkel sounded upbeat about finding a solution to Europe's debt crisis.

In the United States, only a few corporate results are on tap for Wednesday. The Federal Reserve will release its Beige Book in the afternoon.

U.S. stocks are coming off of an advance Tuesday, as investors grew optimistic following upbeat comments about Europe from ratings agency Fitch.

Financial stocks, which were among the biggest gainers Tuesday, retreated in premarket trading Wednesday. Shares of Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500), Morgan Stanley (MS, Fortune 500), Citigroup (C, Fortune 500) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM, Fortune 500) slid between 0.8% and 1.2%.

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World markets: European stocks slumped in midday trading. Britain's FTSE 100 (UKX) slipped 0.7% and the DAX (DAX) in Germany edged lower 0.5%, while France's CAC 40 (CAC40) fell 0.6%.

Asian markets ended mixed. The Shanghai Composite (SHCOMP) closed down 0.4%, while the Hang Seng (HSI) in Hong Kong gained 0.8% and Japan's Nikkei (N225) rose 0.3%.

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Companies: Urban Outfitters (URBN) shares plunged 16% after the retailer announced late Tuesday that its CEO, Glen Senk, is resigning. Richard Hayne, a co-founder of the company, will take his place.

Shares of Lennar (LEN) fell more than 2% in premarket trading after the homebuilder announced earnings that fell short of estimates. Its revenue was better than expected.

Shares of Crocs (CROX) rose more than 5% after the company said it expected its fourth-quarter revenue to come in at the high end of its forecast and full-year sales to top $1 billion.

Shares of BP (BP) fell 1.7% in premarket trading after the oil company announced a deal with Sempra Energy (SRE, Fortune 500) to invest more than $1 billion in wind farms in Pennsylvania and Kansas.

Economy: The Federal Reserve will release its Beige Book report at 2 p.m. ET, summarizing economic outlooks from the 12 district banks across the country.

Currencies and commodities: The dollar rose against the euro, the British pound and the Japanese yen.

Oil for February delivery slipped 53 cents to $101.71 a barrel.

Gold futures for February delivery rose $8.40 to $1,639.90 an ounce.

Bonds: The price on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury rose, pushing the yield down to 1.97%.