Caution ahead of a speech by Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen at the annual gathering of central bankers in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, limited movements across global markets on Friday.
The case for increasing interest rates is building, Dallas Federal Reserve President Robert Kaplan told CNBC on Thursday, but he refused to put a timetable on a possible move.
While he's not a voting member on the central bank's policy committee in 2016, Kaplan rotates in next year.
Kansas City Federal Reserve President Esther George, a voting member on the central bank's policymaking panel, told CNBC it's time to increase interest rates.
In the interview that aired on Thursday, George said any tightening should be gradual. "I do think it is time to move that rate. It doesn't mean I favor high rates. It doesn't mean I think it needs to happen rapidly."
New orders for U.S. manufactured capital goods rose for a second straight month in July as demand for machinery and a range of other products picked up, offering a tentative sign that a business spending downturn was starting to ease.
The Commerce Department said on Thursday non-defense capital goods orders excluding aircraft, a closely watched proxy for business spending plans, increased 1.6 percent last month.
Oil prices dipped in early trading on Friday after the Saudi energy minister tempered expectations of strong market intervention by producers during talks next month.
International benchmark Brent crude oil prices LCOc1 were trading at $49.55 per barrel at 2114 ET, down 12 cents from their previous close.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 was down 7 cents at $47.26 a barrel.
Saudi Arabian Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih told Reuters late on Thursday that "we don't believe any significant intervention in the market is necessary other than to allow the forces of supply and demand to do the work for us," adding that the "market is moving in the right direction" already.
Reference: Reuters, CNBC
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