Wall Street was poised for a lower open on Wednesday as investors took in a slew of mixed results from major companies and a quarterly loss from Morgan Stanley increased jitters over the financial sector.

Wall Street also focused on remarks on the state of the economy and financial system from U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who spoke about the Obama administration's efforts to address the recession.

Geithner said Wednesday the United States bears a substantial share of the blame for the current economic crisis, but the world must work together to ease the strains.

The rest of the world needs the U.S. economy and financial system to recover in order for it to revive, Geithner told the Economic Club of Washington. Just as importantly, we need the rest of the world to recover if we are to prosper again here at home.

Geithner indicated on Tuesday that most banks have sufficient reserves to protect against possible losses, sparking a rebound in bank shares and pushing Wall Street higher.

Morgan Stanley reported its second straight quarterly loss and slashed its dividend, hurt by real estate investment losses and a charge from the improving value of its own debt.

The bank's shares were down 8 percent to $22.69 ahead of the open.

What we're dealing with is the reality that things are not going to turn as quickly as some had hoped, said Marc Pado, U.S. market strategist, Cantor Fitzgerald & Co in San Francisco.

As opposed to things not being so bad right off the bat, everyone is being a little more worried about loss provisions and things like that.

Amid uncertainty over what government stress tests of 19 major U.S. banks will reveal, The Wall Street Journal reported some estimates of likely losses that were used in the tests were tougher than expected.

S&P 500 futures fell 9.80 points and were below fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures lost 91 points, and Nasdaq 100 futures were off 11 points.

Wells Fargo & Co fell 4.3 percent to $18.00 after the company posted profit in line with its forecast earlier in the month. Shares of the bank had surged after it preannounced a profit more than double what analysts were expecting at the time.

Shares of Boeing Co could help cushion the Dow after the planemaker lowered its full-year outlook but the range was still above Wall Street's expectations, according to Reuters Estimates. Its net profit narrowed as the economic slowdown hurt orders. Its shares were up 4 percent at $38.10.

Shares of McDonald's Corp , another Dow component, were little changed after the world's largest hamburger chain said sales at established restaurants rose despite the recession.

Shares of Yahoo Inc could add support to technology shares after the Internet company said it would cut 5 percent of its global workforce and its quarterly results showed progress toward controlling costs.

Yahoo was up 2.9 percent at $14.80 before the opening.

The broad S&P 500 index is up more than 25 percent from the early March bear market low after racking up a six-week rally.

(Reporting by Leah Schnurr; editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

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