Investing.com - U.S. futures inched higher on Friday ahead of a speech from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell at the central bank's annual gathering in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
Powell’s comments will be his public ones on monetary policy since the bank cut rates in July. He'll be balancing the desire of President Donald Trump - and many in financial markets - for aggressive interest rate cuts, with recent data suggesting that the domestic economy is still robust.
The chance of a 25 basis point interest rate cut in September is currently priced at 90%, with at least one more cut expected before the end of the year.
Nasdaq 100 futures rose 22 points or 0.3% by 6:40 AM ET (10:40 GMT), while Dow futures gained 44 points or 0.2% and S&P 500 futures were up 6 points or 0.2%.
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) rose 0.4% after Bloomberg reported that it agreed to buy batteries from South Korea's LG Chem (KS:051910) for electric vehicles manufactured in China. Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) climbed 7.2% after it raised its full-year forecast, while Intuit (NASDAQ:INTU) gained 5.4% after its earnings came in better than expected.
Hasbro (NASDAQ:HAS), was in focus after falling 5.5% in after-hours trading on Thursday after announcing a $4 billion bid for U.K.-based Entertainment One (LON:ETO), the studio that owns the rights to children's TV character Peppa Pig.
HP (NYSE:HPQ) slumped 7.8% after it announced that well-respected CEO Dion Weisler is stepping down for family reasons. It also said printing revenue fell in the third quarter, triggering fears for its highest-margin business.
In commodities, Crude Oil futures dipped 0.2% to $55.26 a barrel. Gold futures lost 0.2% to $1,505.85 a troy ounce, while the U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, gained 0.3% to 98.328.