Futures flat as minutes show Fed divided over rate

EghtesadOnline: U.S. stock index futures were little changed on Thursday, a day after the minutes of the Federal Reserve's July meeting showed policymakers were divided over whether to raise interest rates in the near-term.

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18 August 2016

Fed officials were generally upbeat about the U.S. economy but some expressed the need to keep their options open in the need of more data pointing to strength, the minutes showed.

The dollar index .DXY, which got some respite before the release of the data on Wednesday, fell 0.27 percent as traders saw fewer chances of a hike, according to Reuters.

While traders have almost completely ruled out a hike in September, they have priced in a 41.7 percent chance for a move in December - down from 45.1 percent on Wednesday, according to CME Group's FedWatch tool.

Dow component Wal-Mart (WMT.N) rose 3.3 percent to $75.34 premarket after the retailer posted better-than-expected quarterly profit.

New York Fed President William Dudley, who on Tuesday unnerved the markets by saying a rate hike was possible in September, is scheduled to give a press briefing at 10:00 a.m. ET (1400 GMT).

San Francisco Fed President John Williams speaks on economic outlook in Anchorage, Alaska at 4:00 p.m. ET.

Investors will also keep an eye out for a report on initial jobless claims, which likely slipped by 1,000 to 265,000 last week. The data is due at 8:30 a.m. ET.

Brent crude hovered near $50 a barrel for the first time in six weeks after major producers prepared to discuss a possible freeze in output. U.S. crude was trading near $47.

Twitter (TWTR.N) fell 2.6 percent to $19.64 after Evercore downgraded its stock to "sell" from "hold".

Drug developer Portola (PTLA.O) plunged 18.5 percent to $19.27 after an investigational drug failed to get approval from U.S regulators.

Cisco (CSCO.O) was off 1.7 percent at $30.20 in light trading, after the company reported a 1.6 percent drop in revenue and said it would cut jobs.