Futures flat as Fed stays on course for 2015 rate hike

(Reuters) - Wall Street was set to open little changed on Wednesday after Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said the central bank remained on track to raise interest rates this year, with turmoil abroad unlikely to throw the U.S. economy off track.

Yellen's testimony affirmed the view of a central bank prepared to gradually raise rates after more than six years at a near-zero level. She will speak before the U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee at 10 a.m. ET.

"The fact that the Fed feels comfortable raising rates even with what's going on globally and in lieu of weak retail data that we saw yesterday shows that the economy is healthy," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Rockwell Global Capital in New York.

At 8:49 a.m. ET, S&P 500 e-minis were up 0.5 points, or 0.02 percent, with 117,578 contracts traded. Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 8.25 points, or 0.18 percent, on volume of 16,001 contracts and Dow e-minis <1YMc1> were up 2 points, or 0.01 percent, with 13,822 contracts changing hands.

Investor focus will now turn to the outcome of a Greek parliament vote on the terms of a third bailout. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is struggling to persuade deeply unhappy leftist lawmakers to vote for a package of austerity measures and economic reforms to secure a new bailout.

China's second quarter gross domestic product grew at an annual rate of 7 percent, slightly higher than analysts' forecast, but the data failed to stem the slide in its stock markets where a quarter of stocks are still suspended.

The uncertainty in the Chinese market and the strong dollar will be in focus this U.S. earnings season. Corporate America is expected to report its worst sales decline in nearly six years in the second quarter, while profit is expected to have fallen 2.9 percent, according to Thomson Reuters estimates.

Bank of America's reported its biggest quarterly profit in nearly four years as mortgage banking revenue soared and expenses fell to their lowest since 2008. Its shares rose 2.7 percent to $17.59 in premarket trading.

Delta Air Lines fell 2.1 percent to $425.80 after the carrier forecast a drop in third-quarter unit revenue. The warning weighed on other airline stocks.

Receptos jumped 10.4 percent to $228.64, a day after Celgene said it will buy the smaller biotech company for $7.2 billion. Celegene was up 7.3 percent at $132.05.

Yum Brands slipped 1.6 percent to $90.50 after the owner of Pizza Hut and KFC reported its fourth straight quarter of falling sales.

Netflix will trade on Wednesday for the first time after a seven-for-one stock split. Netflix and Intel are scheduled to report after the markets close.

Among a raft of economic data due Wednesday, the Fed will releases June industrial output data, which is expected to have increased 0.2 percent after falling 0.2 percent in May. The data is due at 9:15 a.m. ET.

The Fed will also issue, at 2 p.m. ET, its so-called Beige Book, an compendium of anecdotes on the health of the economy.

(Editing by Savio D'Souza)

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