Stocks are set to trade lower Wednesday as investors digest comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan indicating that the Fed “is prepared to do what is required” to maintain price stability.

In economic news, the U.S. Commerce Department is due to issue April U.S. wholesale inventories and sales at 10:00 ET. Economists forecast inventories to rise at a median 0.5% pace in April, compared with a 0.6% increase in March.

There are no manor economic releases from Statistics Canada this morning.

In this morning’s business news, Petro-Canada says it will pay $719 million for Prima Energy Corp. of Denver.

Manulife Financial said CGI Group Inc. will create and run an information technology support centre in Halifax for insurance giant. The five-year arrangement, worth $120 million, will provide systems development, maintenance and integration services to Manulife and other CGI clients in the United States and Europe.

Overnight in Asia, Japan’s Nikkei shed 72.19 points, or 0.63%, to close at 11,449.74 points, snapping a three-session rally.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index dipped 4.22 points, or 0.03%, to 12,339.94.

A drop in oil prices sparked a late-day rally on North American markets Tuesday and helped take investors minds off the outlook for interest rates.

The rally pushed U.S. markets up on the day, but wasn’t quite enough to force their Canadian counterparts back into black.

In Toronto, the S&P/TSX composite index finished the day down less than a point — 0.75 points or 0.01% to 8,412, while the S&P/TSX venture exchange dipped 23.81 or 1.49% to 1,571.25.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average gained 41.44 or 0.4% to 10,432.52. Broader stock indicators were also up slightly. The S&P 500 index was up 1.7 or 0.15% to 11,42.12, and the Nasdaq composite index was 2.91 or 0.14% to 2,023.53.