Investing.com - Wall Street futures traded slightly lower on Friday, erasing the prior session’s gain as U.S. stocks continued their pattern of muted summer holiday trade in a session with no major economic reports, while investors continued to keep an eye on signals from the Federal Reserve (Fed) and kept an eye on the state of the recent rally in oil.
The blue-chip Dow futures lost 50 points, or 0.27%, by 10:56AM GMT, or 6:56AM ET, the S&P 500 futures shed 6 points, or 0.30%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures traded down 14 points, or 0.29%.
After minutes from the Fed’s last policy meeting showed members divided over the future path of monetary policy, market players have continued to chew over remarks from various Fed officials throughout the week.
After the close on Thursday, San Francisco Fed president John Williams argued for a rate hike “sooner than later” and insisted that September was definitely “in play”.
Dallas Fed president Robert Kaplan later commented that policy normalization was hampered by a low neutral rate.
Markets will have to wait until next week to hear the views from Fed Chair Janet Yellen who will be giving a speech on August 26 at the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium.
Odds for a rate hike in September were only 12% on Friday with the probability only hitting the 50% threshold for the February 2017 meeting, according to Investing.com’s Fed Rate Monitor Tool.
Though the dollar edged up off seven-week lows on Friday, it was still on track for weekly losses of more than 1% as the dovish read of the Fed meeting minutes pummeled the green back this week.
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 23. It was last at 94.42 by 10:57AM GMT, or 6:57AM ET, up 0.33%.
Meanwhile, market participants took profits in crude in early trade on Friday after oil prices rallied for six straight days to hit two-month highs.
Both U.S. crude and London’s Brent had entered a bull-market, gaining more than 20% since August lows on hopes that OPEC members would take measures to support oil prices when they meet on the sidelines of the International Energy Forum next month.
Additionally, investors looked ahead to fresh information on U.S. drilling activity.
According to oilfield services provider Baker Hughes, the number of rigs drilling for oil in the U.S. last week increased by 15 to 396, the seventh consecutive weekly rise and its longest stretch of increases since April 2014.
U.S. crude futures fell 0.21% to $48.12 by 10:58AM GMT, or 6:58AM ET, though Brent oil lost 0.31% to $50.73.
In company news, Applied Materials Inc (NASDAQ:AMAT) soared more than 5% in pre-market trade on Friday after the semiconductor chip maker beat estimates and published record highs in new orders.
Foot Locker Inc (NYSE:FL) jumped nearly 3% before the bell after reporting a better than expected top and bottom line.
Both Estee Lauder Companies Inc (NYSE:EL) and Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) also gained more than 1% on better than expected profit, though both firms’ revenue missed consensus.
On the downside, Gap Inc (NYSE:GPS) tumbled 5% pre-market on Friday. The clothing retailer produced a profit-forecast that missed consensus.