Investing.com –Wall Street futures pointed to a lower open on Thursday with data on the labor market, durable goods and service sector activity on tap as participant’s looked ahead to Friday’s speech from Federal Reserve (Fed) chair Janet Yellen.
The blue-chip Dow futures lost 42 points, or 0.23%, by 10:57AM GMT, or 6:57AM ET, the S&P 500 futures fell 5 points, or 0.22%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures traded down 11 points, or 0.24%.
The widely anticipated Economic Symposium in Jackson Hole on the topic “Designing Resilient Monetary Policy Frameworks for the Future" kicks off on Thursday with a reception and opening dinner.
Though the full agenda for the three-day gathering of central bankers and leading economists will not be published until 00:00AM GMT, or 20:00ET, the Federal Reserve (Fed) confirmed that U.S. central bank chief Janet Yellen will deliver a speech titled “The Federal Reserve's Monetary Policy Toolkit” on Friday at 14:00GMT, or 10:00AM ET.
Markets were anxious to see if Yellen would give hints on the timing of the next move forward in the normalization of U.S. monetary policy.
The dollar slipped lower against the other major currencies on Thursday, as investors grew more and more cautious ahead of the appearance.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, dropped 0.13% to 94.61 by 10:58 AM GMT, or 6:58AM ET.
The odds for a rate hike at the September meeting had been increasing on the back of recent hawkish comments from Fed officials and are currently putting the probability at 21%, compared to last week’s 9%, according to Investing.com’s Fed Rate Monitor Tool.
Meanwhile, investors looked ahead to key data to be released on Thursday as durable goods orders were expected to rebound in July after the previous month’s slump. The data will be released at 12:30GMT, or 8:30AM ET.
At the same time, markets will see if the weekly jobless claims inch forward as forecast.
Later at 13:45GMT, or 9:45AM ET, Markit will publish its preliminary services purchasing managers’ index (PMI) for August. Activity in the U.S. service sector was expected to rise to a four-month high.
On the earnings front, Guess? Inc (NYSE:GES) soared 21% before the bell after raising the lower end of its forecast.
On the downside, HP Inc (NYSE:HPQ) slumped more than 7% as weak printer demand caused the firm to forecast current quarter earnings that missed estimates.
Dollar General Corporation (NYSE:DG) tumbled almost 5% in pre-market trade on worse-than-forecast earnings.
Sears Holdings Corporation (NASDAQ:SHLD) posted a quarterly loss amid a continued sales decline, but both the top and bottom line were not as bad as consensus had feared.
Medtronic (NYSE:MDT) produced better-than-expected profit despite a 1.4% drop in revenue.
Tiffany & Co (NYSE:TIF) managed to beat on the bottom line, though the 5.9% decline in revenue was larger than expected.
Autodesk (NASDAQ:ADSK), Brocade Communications Systems Inc (NASDAQ:BRCD) or Splunk Inc (NASDAQ:SPLK) were set to release numbers after the market close.
In oil markets, crude faced choppy trade on Thursday, wobbling between gains and losses, after a surprise build in U.S. inventories in the prior session.
After early gains, oil prices continued lower following Wednesday’s sharp losses.
U.S. crude futures fell 0.36% to $46.60 by 11:04AM GMT, or 9:04AM ET, while Brent oil traded down 0.43% to $48.84.
Elsewhere, global stocks were mostly lower on Thursday as investors waited with baited breath for Yellen’s speech. Chinese stocks were pressured by reports that the country’s central bank was discussing liquidity conditions with lenders and the Nikkei 225 moved lower as a dollar rally ran out of steam.
European stocks were also lower as investors took risk off the table ahead of Jackson Hole.