* As
the yuan slid for a third straight day, the People's Bank of
China pointed to strong economic fundamentals it said provided
"strong support" to the exchange rate.
* Wall Street slumped over 1 percent on Wednesday, before
sharply reversing course to close flat after energy shares and
Apple bounced back.
* Oil prices rose on Thursday as lower U.S. crude stocks and
optimistic global demand projections overrode concerns about a
glut of supply.
* The dollar index rebounded from a one-month low hit on
Wednesday, when investors pared back bets that the U.S. Federal
Reserve's interest rate hike would come as early as September.
* To gauge the timing of a rate hike, investors will be keeping
a sharp eye on key economic data, especially on those related to
labor and inflation.
* While inflation remains below what the Fed would like to see,
the labor markets have continued to strengthen. Weekly jobless
claims is expected to have steadied at 270,000, last week. The
data is expected at 8:30 a.m. ET (1230 GMT).
* Also U.S. retail sales likely increased 0.5 percent in July –
compared with a 0.3 percent drop in June – helped by a surge in
demand for automobiles.
* Cisco's shares rose 3.9 percent to $29 premarket after the
network equipment maker's profit beat expectations.
* Tesla rose 1.9 percent to $242.80 after the electric-car maker
said it plans to raise about $500 million through a share sale,
with CEO Elon Musk buying shares worth about $20 million.
* Kohl fell 4.9 percent to $58.50 after the department store
operator reported lower-than-expected same-store sales for the
second quarter.
* Companies scheduled to report after the close of market on
Thursday include King Digital Entertainment, Applied Materials <AMAT.O>
and Nordstrom.
Futures snapshot at 7:06 a.m. ET:
* S&P 500 e-minis were up 5.75 points, or 0.28 percent, with
179,410 contracts traded.
* Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 14.5 points, or 0.32 percent,
on volume of 28,377 contracts.
* Dow e-minis were up 54 points, or 0.31 percent, with 26,873
contracts changing hands.
(Reporting by Tanya Agrawal in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio
D'Souza)
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