Investing.com - Wall Street futures once again pointed to a flat open as investors looked ahead to Federal Reserve (Fed) speakers and economic reports as they continued to speculate over the timing of the next U.S. rate hike and earnings season was set for its unofficial close.
The blue-chip Dow futures slipped 2 points, or 0.01%, by 10:51AM GMT, or 6:51AM ET, the S&P 500 futures dropped less than a point, or 0.01%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures inched down 3 points, or 0.06%.
New York Federal Reserve President William Dudley speaks at 10:00AM ET (14:00GMT), San Francisco Fed President John Williams will deliver a speech in Anchorage, Alaska, at 4:00PM ET and Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan speaks at 8:00PM ET.
Besides the Fed speakers, traders will be watching closely when weekly jobless claims are released at 8:30AM ET (12:30GMT). The Philadelphia Fed survey is also released at 8:30AM.
The economic reports will be scrutinized after the FOMC minutes revealed that policymakers wanted to see more data before deciding to raise rates.
Fed fund futures priced in the probability of an increase in September at 12%, while December remained on the table with odds of 50.8%, according to Investing.com's Fed Rate Monitor Tool.
The dollar continued to weaken on the dovish stance revealed by the minutes and sank to the lowest level in nearly eight weeks on Thursday.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, fell to 94.31, the lowest since June 24. It was last at 94.38 by 10:52AM GMT, or 6:52AM ET, down 0.33%.
On the company front, second quarter earnings season was unofficially coming to a close as Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) prepared to report before the opening bell. Analysts were expecting the world’s largest retailer to produce earnings-per-share (EPS) of $1.02 on revenue of $119.7 billion.
As a reminder, Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT) set a worrisome prequel on Wednesday as the number two U.S. retailer cut its full-year guidance.
In other earnings news, Hormel Foods (NYSE:HRL) beat consensus by two cents with a fiscal third quarter EPS of $0.36, while Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) and Gap Inc (NYSE:GPS) were on the docket to report after the market close.
Meanwhile, oil prices were mixed though West Texas was higher for the sixth straight session on Thursday, extending this month\'s impressive rally to hit fresh five-week highs amid bullish momentum.
Crude prices are up almost 13% in the five sessions leading up to Thursday, amid indications major oil producers are reconsidering a collective production freeze in a bid to boost the market, though concerns remained after Saudi Arabia signaled that it could boost its output to a new record level in August.
U.S. crude futures gained 0.28% to $46.92 by 10:53AM GMT, or 6:53AM ET, though Brent oil gave up 0.38% to $49.66.
Elsewhere, Japan\'s Nikkei closed down 1.6% as the country’s exports tumbled in July at the fastest pace since the global financial crisis, weighed down by a strong yen and sluggish global demand.
Exports in the world’s third largest economy plunged 14% on-year, marking their tenth straight month of decline and the biggest drop since October 2009. Imports, meanwhile, sank 24.7%, worse than forecasts for a drop of 20.6%.
On a lighter note, retail sales in the U.K. posted a larger increase than expected in July, suggesting that British consumers were taking the U.K.’s decision to leave the European Union in stride, official data showed on Thursday.
The Office for National Statistics said that retail sales rose 1.4% in June, the biggest jump since January and blowing past expectations for a 0.2% increase. Year-on-year, retail sales climbed 5.9%. Consensus had forecast a 4.2% rise.