(Updates with analyst comment, market open prices)

By Nikhil Sharma

Aug 21 (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index was subdued

on Thursday, as investors awaited news from the U.S. Federal

Reserve's three-day Jackson Hole symposium that could offer more

clarity on monetary policy in the world's biggest economy.

At 9:50 a.m. ET (1350 GMT), the Toronto Stock Exchange's

S&P/TSX composite index was up 0.02% at 27,883.78

points.

Resource-driven stocks remained one of the biggest supports

for the main index. TSX's materials sector gained

0.8%.

The technology sector restrained overall

gains, down 0.4%, tracking losses in Wall Street's tech-heavy

Nasdaq.

The Fed's annual conference begins on Thursday, with the

spotlight on Chair Jerome Powell's speech on Friday to gauge the

likelihood of a rate cut at the central bank's upcoming meeting.

"Markets are somewhat on hold ... Investors and market

participants want to wait and see what's going to come out of

that symposium," Chris McHaney, executive vice president and

head of investment management and strategy at Global X.

According to the CME Group's FedWatch tool, the odds of

a 25-basis-point cut at the September 16-17 meeting are 79.2%.

Additionally, a weekly U.S. labor report showed that the

number of jobless claims rose by the most in about three months

last week.

In Canada, producer prices unexpectedly rose by 0.7% in

July from June on higher prices for energy and petroleum

products, as well as primary non-ferrous metal products

The data contrasts this week's softer consumer inflation

report, which had bolstered expectations that the Bank of Canada

could resume its rate-cutting cycle.

"It complicates it (rate cut path) for Canada.... It's still

to be seen how much these producer prices are going to feed

through," Global X's McHaney added.

Traders expect at least one rate cut later this year, as the

Canadian central bank has kept the benchmark rate unchanged at

2.75% since March.