Wall Street stock-market futures pointed higher Tuesday ahead of an interest-rate decision from the U.S. Federal Reserve and following the latest quarterly results from Goldman Sachs Group.

Some investors believe the Fed will bring the key U.S. rate to the lowest level on record. Most economists anticipate a half-point cut in the rate from 1% to 0.5%, but many traders have been pricing in an even larger cut to an all-time low of 0.25%.

Here at home, manufacturing sales fell for a third consecutive month in October, decreasing 0.5% to $51.5 billion, Statistics Canada said.

The Canadian dollar opened down slightly at US81.14¢, down 0.05 of a cent from Monday’s close.

In banking news, Royal Bank of Canada said some of its clients have less than $50 million in exposure to alleged US$50 billion Ponzi scheme run by Wall Street investment manager Bernard Madoff.

In a statement issued Monday, the bank said it doesn’t have any direct exposure to the investments,

In today’s earnings news, Wall Street investment bank Goldman Sachs posted fourth-quarter loss of US$2.12 billion, or US$4.47 a share — its first quarterly loss since it went public in 1999. Morgan Stanley reports results on Wednesday.

In commodities news, oil prices held fairly steady as light, sweet crude rose 18¢ to US$44.69 a barrel in electronic premarket trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Overseas, markets were mixed. Japan’s Nikkei stock average fell 1.12%, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rose 0.55%.

In late morning trading, Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 0.14%, Germany’s DAX index rose 1.33%, and France’s CAC-40 rose 0.54%.

Early gains for Toronto stocks were replaced with losses later in the day on Monday as growth among materials stocks failed to offset declines in the energy and financial groups.

The S&P/TSX composite index fell 53.62 points, or 0.63%, to end at 8,461.83.

The S&P/TSX Venture index slipped into the red late in the day, ending down 1.73 points, or 0.24%, at 716.81.

In New York, declines for American equities pulled all three main indexes lower.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 65.15 points, or 0.75%, to finish at 8,564.53.

The Nasdaq composite index fell 32.38 points, or 2.1%, to end at 1,508.34.

The S&P 500 index dipped 19.91 points, or 2.24%, to close at 868.57.

IE