US pre-open: Stocks seen flat ahead of jobless claims, Philly Fed

US futures pointed to a steady open on Wall Street, where investors were likely to continue mulling over the latest minutes from the Federal Reserve as they eyed the release of jobless claims data and the Philadelphia Fed survey.

At 1055 BST, Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 futures were flat, while Nasdaq futures were down 0.1%.

At the same time, oil prices were mixed. West Texas Intermediate was up 0.6% at $47.05 a barrel and Brent crude was down 0.1% at $49.79.

Stocks closed a little higher on Wednesday after minutes form the Fed’s 26-27 July policy meeting showed a continued reluctance to jump to any conclusions about the state of the economy.

Policymakers were divided on the pace of rate hikes needed, meaning a September move is unlikely.

The minutes stated that, regarding the near-term outlook, members of the Federal Open Markets Committee "generally agreed that the prompt recovery in financial markets following the Brexit vote and the pickup in job gains in June had alleviated two key uncertainties about the outlook that they had faced at the time of the June meeting”.

IG analyst Joshua Mahony said the minutes have been “taken as a sign that there may not be a rate hike in the remainder of this year” and were “considered particularly dovish in light of FOMC member William Dudley’s comments earlier this week that the market shouldn’t rule out a rate hike in September”.

Societe Generale strategist Kit Juckes said: “The FOMC minutes highlighted Fed policy uncertainty and negated the impact of Bill Dudley’s comments the day before. A September hike can’t be ruled out completely but most FOMC members finding waiting-and-seeing easier than action.

“That doesn’t really advance the US policy debate much but whenever the next rate hike finally takes place, the march higher will continue to be really, really slow.”

In corporate news, Cisco Systems was in the red in pre-market trade after the technology company released better-than-expected earnings late on Wednesday and said it plans to cut 5,500 jobs.

Wal-Mart Stores was among the companies slated to report earnings before the opening bell.

On the macroeconomic front, investors will eye the release of initial jobless claims and the Philadelphia Fed survey at 1330 BST, followed by leading indicators at 1500 BST.

New York Fed President William Dudley is scheduled to give a speech on economic conditions at 1500 BST, while San Francisco Fed President John Williams is due to speak at 1600 BST.