US equity futures posted narrow losses before Wednesday's opening bell as traders look ahead to the release of minutes from the Federal Reserve's December meeting.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average futures slipped marginally, S&P 500 futures fell less than 0.1%, and Nasdaq futures were down 0.1%.

Oil prices were higher, with front-month global benchmark North Sea Brent crude up 0.1% at $77.13 per barrel and US West Texas Intermediate crude up 0.4% at $74.56 per barrel.

The ADP Institute's employment report, released at 8:15 am ET, showed private payrolls rose by 122,000 in December, compared with estimates compiled by Bloomberg for a 139,000 increase.

New unemployment claims rose to 201,000 in the week ended Jan. 4 from 211,000 in the previous week, compared with estimates for a 215,000 claims.

The policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee is scheduled to release the minutes from its latest meeting at 2 pm ET.

In other world markets, Japan's Nikkei closed 0.3% lower, Hong Kong's Hang Seng ended 0.9% lower, and China's Shanghai Composite finished 0.02% higher. Meanwhile, UK's FTSE 100 fell 0.6%, and Germany's DAX index slipped 0.3% in Europe's early afternoon session.

In equities, Absci Corp. (ABSI) shares rose more than 35% after the company formed a collaboration with AMD (AMD) to advance AI drug discovery.

On the losing side, Flutter Entertainment (FLUT) shares fell more than 1% after the company said late Tuesday it lowered its 2024 US revenue guidance to $5.78 billion from a previous range of $6.05 billion to $6.25 billion.