U.S. stock index futures pointed to a relatively flat open on Tuesday 11.7.2017

U.S. stock index futures pointed to a relatively flat open on Tuesday, as investors prepared themselves for a slew of data announcements and speeches by members of the U.S. Federal Reserve.

On the data front, the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) small business optimism index slipped to 103.6 in June from 104.5 in May. Wholesale trade and the Labor Department's JOLTS (Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey) report are also due at 10 a.m. ET.

Sticking with financial news, PepsiCo posted better-than-expected quarterly results.

Looking to the central banking space, a number of U.S. Federal Reserve members will be delivering speeches on Tuesday.

Fed Governor Lael Brainard will be speaking at the Normalizing Central Banks' Balance Sheets: What is the New Normal? conference at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, where she is expected to talk about monetary policy.

Meanwhile, Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari will be at the Minnesota Women's Economic Roundtable event, in Minneapolis.

Meanwhile, when answering questions at an economics event in Sydney; San Francisco Fed President John Williams said he believed a recent softening in U.S. inflation was temporary and that inflation would rise to around 2 percent over the coming year, according to Bloomberg