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 (.GSPTSE),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 (.GSPTTMT),gained 0.8%.
The technology sector (.SPTTTK), restrained overall gains, down 0.4%, tracking losses in Wall Street's tech-heavy Nasdaq (.IXIC).
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.
Reporting by Nikhil Sharma; Editing by Sahal Muhammed and Devika Syamnath
