hot U.S. housing market cooling off last month. Benchmark 10-year eurozone yields traded at around 3.17 percent while comparable U.S. yields hovered around the 4.18 percent mark. The FTSEurofirst 300 index of leading European shares fell 0.5 percent to 1,180.4 points -- some 20 points below a three-year high struck earlier in the month. U.S. stock index futures suggested Wall Street would extend Tuesday's losses at the open. Quarterly earnings from Telekom Austria beat the consensus but disappointed on margins, knocking its shares down 1.7 percent. Leading global miner BHP Billiton, meanwhile, reported a second-half profit that was 85 percent up on the previous year but still not good enough for markets. Its shares fell 3.0 percent in London and pulled other mining stocks down as the price of three-month London copper -- a benchmark for industrial metals -- dipped below $3,600 a tonne after exchange warehouse inventories reached a nine-month high. Weekly data at 1430 GMT was expected to show drawdowns in U.S. crude and gasoline inventories and helped lift U.S. crude oil futures to $66.20 a barrel as traders eyed another tropical storm threatening production in the Gulf of Mexico. That left the market within a dollar of its all-time highs. Gold held steady above $438 an ounce but the yellow metal remained vulnerable to selling due to a firmer dollar and long positions in New York, traders said. --SP 1410 Local Time 1110 GMT
