Investing.com - Wall Street futures pointed to a flat open on Thursday as the market grew more skeptical of the preliminary deal to cut production between members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) amid a lack of concrete details and investors looked forward to economic indicators and another round of appearances by members of the Federal Reserve (Fed).
The blue-chip Dow futures slipped 6 points, or 0.03%, by 6:56AM ET (10:56GMT), the S&P 500 futures inched down 2 points, or 0.06%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures dropped 5 points, or 0.10%.
Despite the fact that the OPEC outlined a deal for what would be the first oil production cut since 2008, most experts were skeptical over the lack of details and its potential to have a material impact on oil prices.
Analysts pointed to the fact that potential agreement, scheduled for the official OPEC meeting on November 30, would take two months to arrive and that the cartel had a poor historic record of complying with quotas.
They further warned that the deal would not resolve the current global supply glut in the short-term and any rise in prices would only incentivize production increases in other parts of the world.
After spiking more than 5% on the news of the framework for an agreement in the prior session, investors showed caution on Thursday due to skepticism over the deal.
U.S. crude futures fell 0.51% to $46.81 by 6:57AM ET (10:57GMT), while Brent oil lost 0.67% to $48.91.
Meanwhile, investors looked ahead to more U.S. economic data for clues on the likelihood of a December rate hike.
Data due on Thursday includes weekly jobless claims, the final look at second-quarter GDP and the trade deficit, all at 8:30AM ET (12:30GMT). Pending home sales for are reported at 10:00AM ET (14:00GMT).
A handful of Fed policymakers are also due to make public appearances on Thursday that may offer insight into how divided they are about raising rates.
Earlier, Philadelphia Fed president Patrick Harker said Thursday that, given the economic improvement in the U.S., the central bank could do nothing more to foster growth and urged fiscal and other policies to take the reins.
In the posterior Q&A, Harker said that while a rate hike in November was still on the table, if the economy continued to run at current pace, he felt December would be appropriate to normalized monetary policy.
Still ahead, Atlanta Fed president Dennis Lockhart, Fed governor Jerome Powell, Minneapolis Fed chief Neel Kashkari and Kansas City Fed president Esther George are all scheduled to speak during the day.
On Wednesday, Kashkari commented that he believed the economy still had room to run as the healthy clip of job creation was not resulting in inflationary pressure, while George repeated her call for a near-term rate hike to normalize policy.
There is also an appearance Thursday by Fed chair Janet Yellen, who is due to speak via videoconference at the Minority Bankers Forum in Kansas City at 4:00PM ET (20:00GMT).
In testimony to the House of Representatives’ Financial Service Committee a day earlier, Yellen indicated that if job creation continued at its current pace it could lead to overheating of the American economy which in turn would require a more rapid removal of accommodative monetary policy.
Markets are currently pricing in only an 8.3% of a hike at the November meeting, while odds for December stood at 56.4%, according to Investing.com's Fed Rate Monitor Tool.
On the company front, PepsiCo (NYSE:PEP) could see movement after the market open as fiscal third quarter earnings beat consensus.
ConAgra Foods (NYSE:CAG) and Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) were also set to provide figures before the opening bell, while Costco (NASDAQ:COST) will publish after the market close.
Elsewhere, Asian shares ended mostly higher, as investors cheered the OPEC decision to reduce oil production. In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 closed up 1.4%, boosted by a weaker yen.
Meanwhile, European and U.K. stocks were broadly higher in mid-day trade, as the surprise OPEC announcement supported shares in the oil sector.