Futures flat on oil pullback; economic data awaited

[September 29, 2016]  By Yashaswini Swamynathan

(Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures were little changed on Thursday as oil prices lost ground and investors braced for a heavy dose of economic data and comments from Federal Reserve officials.

An agreement among major oil producing countries to curb output resulted in a near 6 percent surge in Brent crude prices on Wednesday, but the lack of details of the deal led to profit taking a day later. The commodity was down 0.88 percent. [O/R]

Wall Street ended higher on Wednesday as the oil rally lifted shares of energy companies.

Yellen speaks on banking and the economy at 4:00 p.m. ET (2000 GMT) in Washington and her comments will be parsed for any hints on the future path of interest rates.

Fed Board Governor Jerome Powell and Kansas City Fed President Esther George, members who vote on interest rates, are also among those scheduled to speak on Thursday.

The markets have been captive to every deliberation by the central bank as its officials remain divided over whether the U.S. economy is strong enough to absorb a rate hike in the near term.

Analysts say the markets are likely to face increased volatility as the U.S. presidential election nears, while investors also prepare for the upcoming third-quarter corporate earnings season.

Data on watch for Thursday includes the final estimate of second-quarter gross domestic product, which likely increased to 1.3 percent from the prior estimate of 1.1 percent. The report is due at 8:30 a.m. ET (1230 GMT).

Initial jobless claims rose to 260,000 last week, a report also at 8:30 a.m. ET is expected to show.

Shares of PepsiCo rose 2.3 percent to $109.90 premarket after the beverage giant reported quarterly revenue that beat analysts' estimate.

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., September 28, 2016. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

Ebay rose 2.4 percent after Deutsche Bank upgraded the e-commerce platform's rating to "buy" and raised its price target.

Intra-Cellular  plunged 65.76 percent to $14.50 after the company said its schizophrenia drug did not show any clinically significant difference when compared with placebo.

Fitbit was down 4.9 percent after pacific Crest downgraded its stock to "underweight".

Futures snapshot at 6:51 a.m. ET:

Dow e-minis were down 6 points, or 0.03 percent, with 15,554 contracts changing hands.

S&P 500 e-minis were down 1.75 points, or 0.08 percent, with 104,153 contracts traded.

Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 4.75 points, or 0.1 percent, on volume of 13,695 contracts.

(Reporting by Yashaswini Swamynathan in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva)

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