Wall Street futures suggested a negative start for regular trading Wednesday, while Canadian retail sales hit a new high in April.

Canadian retail sales surged to a record high for the second straight month in April, Statistics Canada reported today. The gains came in part due to a near-record price hike for gasoline.

Retailers sold $32.8 billion worth of goods and services, up 1.7% from March, the government agency said.

Separately, StatsCan reported that the composite index grew 0.3% in May after increasing 0.4% in April. The rises in the index have ranged from 0.3% to 0.5% over most of the last two years.

The Canadian dollar opened at US89.75¢, up 0.27 of a cent.

In today’s earnings news, Morgan Stanley’s net more than doubled and it posted record revenue on strong equity and fixed income trading activity, following a string of strong reports from rival financial-services firms.

In M&A news, Petro-Canada said late Tuesday that it will extend its unsolicited offer for Canada Southern Petroleum for two more weeks, but did not sweeten the bid for the junior producer despite a significantly higher competing offer from Canadian Oil Sands Trust.

In other financial news, CIBC and several of its affiliates were hit yesterday with a US$2 billion lawsuit that accused them of participating in a scheme to profit from the sale of shares in telecommunications company Global Crossing Ltd.

Crude-oil prices edged up 3¢ to US$69.37 a barrel in early trading Wednesday as traders awaited the release of U.S. oil inventories and developments in diplomatic talks over Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

European indexes were lower in early trading.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 index dipped 4.15 points, or 0.03%, to finish at 14,644.26 points, its third decline in a row.

In Hong Kong, the blue-chip Hang Seng index rose 50.39 points, or 0.3%, to 15,659.36.

Toronto stocks drifted lower Tuesday, adding to Monday’s triple-digit drop, as investors remain skittish after the market’s recent sell off.

The S&P/TSX composite index was off 12.10 points, or 0.11%, to 10,995.48, dropping below the 11,000 mark after topping out over 12,300 in early May.

The S&P/TSX Venture composite index gained 19.67 points, or 0.79%, to 2,522.27.

In New York, markets ended mixed as investors awaited next week’s U.S. Federal Reserve announcement.

The Dow Jones industrial average closed up 32.73 points at 10,974.84. The Nasdaq composite index ended down 3.35 points at 2,107.06, while the S&P 500 fell a slight 0.02 of a point to 1,240.12.