Futures up ahead of Yellen's testimony

[July 12, 2017]  By Sweta Singh

(Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures were higher on Wednesday ahead of Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen's testimony to Congress.

* Yellen will present her semi-annual monetary policy testimony before the House Financial Services Committee at 1000 ET.

* Fed Chair is expected to say that the Fed remains on a hawkish course of steadily rising rates. Any signals on how the bank is viewing a retreat in inflation and muted wage growth will be closely watched.

* The U.S. central bank issues its Beige Book at 2pm ET (1800 GMT), a compendium of anecdotes on the health of the economy, that will likely provide further evidence about the strength on the economy giving the Fed impetus to raise.
 

* The Fed's next policy meeting is on July 25-26.

* U.S. stocks closed flat on Tuesday after clawing back from a fall as emails suggested Trump Jr. welcomed Russian help against Clinton in the 2016 presidential campaign.

* The dollar on Wednesday failed to recover from the damage suffered from Trump's alleged links with Russia and held close to its lowest in more than a year against the euro.

 Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., July 5, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

* Investors are also keeping an eye on second-quarter earnings reports on Friday from big U.S. banks including JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Citigroup.

Futures snapshot at 6:57 a.m. ET (1057 GMT):

* Dow e-minis were up 34 points, or 0.16 percent, with 14,193 contracts changing hands.

* S&P 500 e-minis were up 4.25 points, or 0.18 percent, with 83,248 contracts traded.

* Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 15.75 points, or 0.28 percent, on volume of 17,093 contracts.

(Reporting by Sweta Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)

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