TORONTO – The Toronto Stock market is likely to start negative on Wednesday as questions percolate over the timing of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s removal of monetary stimulus by tapering off its current bond-buying program.

Comments from Fed Reserve officials have been in focus over the past day after two regional presidents said that the central bank could make its moves to slow stimulus in the shorter term, though the exact timing was left to interpretation.

The Canadian dollar was down 0.54 of a cent to 96.38 cents US.

Dow Jones industrial futures have given up 55 points to 15,419. S&P futures are down 5.2 points to 1,688.70. Nasdaq futures are down 7.5 points to 3,110.50.

The Federal Reserve is expected to report that consumers increased their borrowing in June. The central bank report is due at 3 p.m. ET.

In commodities, December bullion pulled back $5.50 to US$1,277 an ounce.

The September crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange moved down seven cents to US$105.23 a barrel.

Meanwhile, in earnings, Air Canada (TSX:AC.B) came in far ahead of analyst predictions with adjusted net income of $115 million in the second quarter. The results marked a big improvement from a year earlier when it reported an adjusted net loss of $7 million.

In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was down 0.4 per cent at 6,576 while Germany’s DAX fell 0.6 per cent to 8,247. The CAC-40 in France was 0.2 per cent lower at 4,021.

Earlier in Asia, the Nikkei’s retreat hit sentiment across the region. South Korea’s Kospi fell 1.5 per cent to 1,878.33 while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 shed 1.9 per cent to 5,011.30. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was 1.5 per cent down at 21,588.84 in the absence of fresh buying incentives.