US pre-open: Futures pointing higher ahead of July producer price data

U.S. equity futures were pointing higher following a flattish close to trading during the previous session.

Stocks had initially registered large gains during the previous session in the wake of slightly lower-than-expected CPI numbers, before San Francisco fed chief, Mary Daly, said that the Federal Reserve still had more work to do.

"This failure to hang onto the gains of the day speaks to how nervous investors are when it comes to the outlook for inflation at a time, even though Daly isn’t a voting member on the FOMC this year, and she’s hardly likely to say anything else," said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK.

As of 0834 BST, the Dow Jones mini futures contract was trading higher by 56 points to 35,307.0, alongside a seven point gain for the S&P 500 mini to 4,492.75.

The Nasdaq-100 mini meanwhile was climbing by 34.25 points to 15,235.50.

On the economic calendar for Friday, at 1330 BST the Department of Labor was to publish final demand price figures for July.

They would be followed at 1500 BST by the preliminary results of the University of Michigan's consumer confidence survey for August.