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Futures up: Dow 0.12%, S&P 500 0.09%, Nasdaq 0.06%

Aug 22 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures were

marginally higher on Thursday, as sentiment remained upbeat

about the Federal Reserve possibly kicking off its policy easing

cycle next month, with focus now shifting to policymakers'

commentary at Jackson Hole this week.

Hopes that the Fed would cut interest rates next month got a

boost after minutes from the U.S. central bank's latest meeting

showed on Wednesday a "vast majority" of officials said such an

action was likely.

The July policy meeting occurred before the disappointing

employment report for that month and a host of economic reports

pointing to cooling inflation and a softening but resilient

economy.

"The minutes are backward-looking but confirm the soft

signals from Fed Chair Powell after the meeting," noted Elisabet

Kopelman, U.S. economist at banking group SEB.

"These plans should have received further support from weak

data since the July meeting, and we expect Powell to send a

clear signal on this in his speech in Jackson Hole tomorrow."

The much-awaited Jackson Hole Economic Symposium kicks off

later in the day, with Fed chair Powell slated to deliver

remarks on Friday.

Money markets currently see a 69.5% chance of an at least

25-basis-point (bps) cut in September, as per the CME FedWatch

Tool and about 100 bps of easing by December, according to LSEG

data.

Wall Street's main indexes closed slightly higher in the

previous session, with the S&P 500 now sitting less than

1% away from its all-time highs seen in July.

Later in the day, a weekly reading of U.S. jobless claims is

due at 8:30 a.m ET, and preliminary estimates of August U.S.

business activity are due at 9:45 a.m. ET.

At 05:10 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were up 50 points, or

0.12%, S&P 500 E-minis were up 5 points, or 0.09% and

Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 13.25 points, or 0.06%.

Among individual stocks, data cloud analytics firm Snowflake

raised its forecast for full-year product revenue.

Still, Snowflake's shares were down 8.5% in premarket trading

with analysts attributing the drop to the company not pairing

the climb in revenue projections with a rise in margin forecast.

Paramount Global ( PARAA ) gained 3.3% after a source told

Reuters that veteran media executive Edgar Bronfman has

sweetened his bid to take over the company, offering $6 billion

for its controlling shareholder National Amusements and a

minority stake in Paramount.

Shares of Charles Schwab ( SCHW ) were down nearly 4% after

Canada's TD Bank Group said it would sell part of its

stake in the brokerage firm.