U.S. stock index futures were muted on Tuesday as investors assessed retailer Home Depot's earnings for insights on the health of the American consumer and awaited a key Federal Reserve conference scheduled later in the week.

U.S. stock futures were down ahead of Wednesday’s session as investors prepared for earnings reports from major retailers and the release of the

Wall Street’s major averages slipped on Wednesday as investors weighed a fresh round of retail earnings and now look ahead to the release of the Federal Reserve’s latest meeting minutes. Falling the hardest has been the tech focused Nasdaq Composite (COMP:IND) which has dropped 1.