By Amruta Khandekar and Shristi Achar A
(Reuters) -U.S. stock index futures edged higher on Friday ahead of a keenly awaited speech by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell at the Jackson Hole summit that could indicate the central bank's next interest rate move at its September meeting.
Powell is scheduled to deliver a keynote speech at 10:05 a.m. ET (1405 GMT) at a research conference that will see participation from top global central bankers.
Investors will be watching out for signs of a dovish tilt in the commentary. Although, CMC Markets' Michael Hewson does not see that happening.
"As we already know from recent comments from various Fed officials... the Fed believes the fight against inflation is far from over, and in that context it's unlikely he (Powell) will deliver any dovish surprises," he said.
"While Powell is unlikely to be anywhere near as hawkish as he was last year, he won't want to declare victory either."
A spate of strong economic data, including a fall in last week's jobless claims, has signalled robust consumer demand and a tight labor market, dampening hopes that the Fed could be close to the end of its rate-hike cycle.
Keeping equities under pressure, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose for the second day. Traders' bet that the Fed would pause its rate hikes in September slipped to 80.5% from 89% a week ago, according to the CME Group's FedWatch tool.
Still, the tech-heavy Nasdaq has risen 1.3% this week, largely due a rally in shares of megacap growth stocks in the run up to Nvidia's second-quarter results, which were reported on Wednesday.
Shares of Nvidia slipped 0.2% in premarket trading on Friday after nearly erasing all their gains in the previous session as some traders took profits following a blowout forecast from the chip-designer.
Shares of other megacap growth stocks were mixed, with Tesla and Microsoft up 0.4% and 0.2%, respectively while Alphabet was flat.
At 7:21 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 106 points, or 0.31%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 10 points, or 0.23%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 5 points, or 0.03%.
Shares of Marvell Technology Inc fell 3.5% after the chipmaker posted a fall in second-quarter revenue, hit by a weak enterprise market.
Hawaiian Electric dropped 23.6% after the county of Maui sued the power company and S&P downgraded its credit rating amid scrutiny over its role in the Maui wildfires.
Nordstorm slipped 2.0% as the department store chain left its forecast unchanged due to "cautious consumers".
(Reporting by Amruta Khandekar and Shristi Achar A; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)
