Futures are doing nothing ahead of Yellen's big speech

Stock futures were as dull as they could be on Friday ahead of what's being called Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen's most important speech of the year.

At 8:08 a.m. ET, futures on the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq were all down by less than 0.1%. It was also quiet overnight, as global stocks slipped to a two-week low.

Yellen's speech titled "The Federal Reserve's monetary policy toolkit" could be a nerdy discussion of just that.

It's slated to begin from the Jackson Hole Symposium at 10 a.m. ET, and comes at a time when economists everywhere are discussing the limitations of central bank intervention and debating the scope of fiscal policy.

But traders are hoping Yellen would also use this speech to hint at the Fed's readiness to raise interest rates before the end of this year.

The odds that the Fed would move this year for the second time in a decade have climbed steadily during the past few days, and are at the highest level since before the UK voted to leave the European Union.

In other markets, the dollar edged down, with its index 0.15% lower to 94.63. Gold was green, up 0.43%, or $5.55 an ounce, to $1,330.25. Treasuries were slightly higher, with the benchmark 10-year yield down by less than one basis point to 1.57%.

The second estimate of second-quarter GDP headlines the economic-data calendar. Consumer sentiment from the University of Michigan, and Baker Hughes' oil rig count, will also be released later on Friday.