Investing.com - Wall Street stock futures pointed to a flat open on Friday as investors remained on pause ahead of a speech by Federal Reserve (Fed)I chair Janet Yellen in which she is expected to confirm a recent slew of hawkish comments from her colleagues at the U.S. central bank..
The blue-chip Dow futures was unchanged, by 6:58AM ET (11:58GMT), the S&P 500 futures lost 3 points, or 0.12%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures fell 8 points, or 0.15%.
Yellen was scheduled to speak on the economy to the Executives’ Club of Chicago at 1:00PM ET (18:00GMT) Friday.
Several Fed speakers, with particular attention paid to the shift in the normally dovish Fed Governor Lael Brainard, have already succeeded in boosting the market pricing of a March hike to 73% from around 18% last week, according to Investing.com’s Fed Rate Monitor Tool.
Market players will be looking for Yellen to confirm the possibility of policy tightening before the Fed enters the blackout period ahead of the March 14-15 meeting.
Also on Friday, Chicago Fed president Charles Evans, Richmond Fed chief Jeffrey Lacker, Fed governor Jerome Powell and Fed vice chair Stanley Fischer are all set to deliver remarks.
On the economic front, the major report on Friday will be the Institute of Supply Management’s (ISM) non-manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) for February at 10:00AM ET (15:00GMT).
Ahead of the day’s events, the dollar slipped on Friday from its highest level in seven weeks against a basket of currencies, though the greenback remained underpinned by March rate hike bets while markets waited for the “final word” from Yellen.
The dollar index was last off by 0.14% at 102.02 by 6:59AM ET (11:59GMT) but remained on track for gains for the week.
In a slow day for earnings, Big Lots (NYSE:BIG) reported earnings-per-share of $2.26, beating consensus by four cents, though the retailer’s flat revenue of $1.58 billion missed by $10 million.
Staples Inc (NASDAQ:SPLS) and Revlon Inc (NYSE:REV) were also expected to report quarterly earnings before the open.
Eyes were likely to remain on Snap Inc (NYSE:SNAP). after the disappearing message app rose 44% in its stock market debut on Thursday. Shares were up 1.26% to $24.84 in pre-market trade Friday, building on profits compared to its $17 a share IPO pricing.
Meanwhile, oil markets recovered on Friday after three straight sessions of declines as the dollar edged away from a multi-week high, although prices were being held in check by unchanged Russian output for February, a sign of its weak compliance on a global deal to cut supplies.
Russia's February oil output was unchanged from January at 11.11 million barrels per day (bpd), energy ministry data showed, with its cuts from October 2016 levels remaining at 100,000 bpd or a third of what was pledged by Moscow under its agreement with the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
Investors also looked ahead to the most recent data from Baker Hughes on U.S. drilling activity as concerns that increased output stateside could cancel out the impact of the output cut accord.
Last Friday, the oilfield services provider revealed that the number of active U.S. rigs drilling for oil rose by five in the previous week, the sixth weekly increase in a row. That brought the total count to 602, the most since October 2015.
U.S. crude futures gained 0.25% to $52.74 by 6:59AM ET (11:59GMT), while Brent oil rose 0.34% to $55.27.