North American stocks are poised to open lower on Wednesday, after Morgan Stanley results disappointed and a Republican Senate win shook the balance of power in Washington.

In premarket trading, Dow Jones industrial average futures are down 56 points. S&P 500 futures are down 7 points and S&P/TSX index futures are down 3.1 points.

Overseas, European bourses are down, with London's FTSE 100 index off more than one per cent.

Asian markets closed lower after China said it will restrict credit. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was down nearly 2 per cent and Japan's Nikkei index fell one-quarter of a per cent.

The loonie fell sharply, down 1.5 per cent to 95.53 cents (U.S.), as the price of oil dropped and the Bank of Canada appeared unlikely to raise rates until the second half of the year at the earliest.