Investing.com – Wall Street futures pointed to a slightly higher open on Friday as investors prepared for key speeches from U.S. and European central bank chiefs at the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium and watched developments as what could be the biggest hurricane in over a decade neared Texas.
The blue-chip Dow futures gained 44 points, or 0.20%, at 7:01AM ET (11:01GMT), the S&P 500 futures rose 6 points, or 0.26%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures traded up 20 points, or 0.34%.
Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen is scheduled to give a speech on “Financial Stability” at 10:00AM ET (14:00GMT) Friday at the Jackson Hole symposium on “Fostering a Dynamic Global Economy”.
Investors will keep a close eye on Yellen to see if she offers further clues as to the outlook for monetary policy.
Although expectations are low, some experts speculate that the Fed chief could attempt to realign market expectations with the central bank’s own outlook that it will raise rates once more this year.
Ahead of Yellen’s remarks, Fed fund futures price in the possibility at only around 44%, according to Investing.com's Fed Rate Monitor Tool, and, in fact, the odds for another 25 basis point increase do not pass the 50% threshold until March 2018.
European Central Bank president Mario Draghi will also be in the limelight at Jackson Hole with a speech scheduled at 3:00PM ET (1900GMT) Friday.
While market expectations had been previously high that Draghi would use his address to signal ECB tapering in the autumn, reports last week suggest he will not be making major policy announcements.
Though currency markets had been stagnant overnight ahead of Jackson Hole, market players appeared to be betting on dollar weakness in early morning trade ahead of the appearances from the two key central bankers.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, dropped 0.16% to 93.08 by 7:03AM ET (11:03GMT).
On the data front, investors will digest durable goods orders for July at 8:30AM ET (12:30GMT), as they look for indications on the strength of the U.S. economy at the start of the third quarter.
Meanwhile, oil prices rose on Friday as meteorologists forecast that Hurricane Harvey could become a category 3 “major hurricane” when it hits Texas either late Friday or early Saturday.
Harvey has rapidly intensified since Thursday, spinning into potentially the biggest hurricane to hit the U.S. mainland in 12 years.
Prices rose as production in the affected area, responsible for 45% of the nation’s refining capacity and 17% of U.S. output, shut down in preparation for the hurricane, and on expectations that closures could last if the storm causes extensive damage
U.S. crude oil futures rose 0.72% to $47.77 at 7:03AM ET (11:03GMT), while Brent oil traded up 0.79% to $52.45.
Market participants also looked ahead to the latest gauge on U.S. shale production when Baker Hughes releases its most recent weekly rig count data later on Friday.
In earnings news, shares in GameStop (NYSE:GME) tumbled 6% in pre-market trade Friday after the video game retailer’s quarterly profit disappointed markets.
To the upside, Big Lots (NYSE:BIG) jumped nearly 4% after the discount retailer reported record earnings that beat analyst estimates.