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 The dollar was on track for its best streak of gains in almost a
year after comments by U.S. Federal Reserve policymakers suggested
more than one increase in interest rates this year.
The comments by Fed officials come one week after Fed Chair Janet
Yellen adopted a cautious tone on raising rates and said the central
bank remains data dependant and wary of weak global financial and
economic conditions.
St Louis Fed President James Bullard is slated to speak on the U.S.
economy and monetary policy. Bullard, a voting member of the Federal
Open Market Committee, said on Wednesday that he remains wary of
raising rates when inflation expectations are falling.
Oil prices, which had recovered from a rout that sent both
benchmarks to multi-year lows, fell below $40 a barrel as U.S. crude
inventories touched record highs.
Wall Street closed lower on Wednesday as a five-week rally, which
had pushed the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones industrial average into
positive territory for the year, lost momentum.
The S&P was down 0.35 percent for the year, while the Dow held on to
a small gain for 2016.
Investors will now look to the data to gauge the health of the
economy as they begin to price in the possibility of more rate hikes
in 2016 than anticipated.
A report due at 8:30 a.m. ET on durable goods orders is expected to
show orders fell 2.9 percent in February.
Also due at the same time are jobless claims numbers for last week.
Unemployment benefits likely rose by 3,000 to 268,000.
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Range Resources shares were down 3.8 percent at $30.01 in premarket
trading after Barclays downgraded the stock to "underweight."
Yahoo was up 1.1 percent at $34.80 after Goldman Sachs raised its
price target on the stock.
Dow e-minis were down 78 points, or 0.45 percent, with 26,242
contracts changing hands.
S&P 500 e-minis were down 10.5 points, or 0.52 percent, with
157,111 contracts traded.
Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 23 points, or 0.52 percent, on
volume of 17,360 contracts.
(Reporting by Abhiram Nandakumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil
D'Silva)
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