Feb 28 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures rose slightly on Friday after a volatile week as investors looked ahead to crucial inflation data that is expected to guide the Federal Reserve's monetary policy decisions.
At 06:58 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were up 149 points, or 0.34%, S&P 500 E-minis were up 20.5 points, or 0.35%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 59 points, or 0.29%.
The Personal Consumption Expenditure index, the Fed's preferred inflation gauge, is due at 8:30 a.m. ET. The data is expected to show prices increased by 2.5% in January on an annual basis, compared with a 2.6% rise in the month before.
Excluding volatile items such as food and energy, the index is forecast to rise 2.6% in the previous month, compared with a 2.8% increase in December.
Friday's report will be key for investors trying to gauge the central bank's next policy move, after policymakers reiterated a hawkish stance on interest rates. The fear is that the new Trump administration's policies, especially trade restrictions, could potentially lead to a rise in domestic inflation.
"Tariff talk is also stoking inflation fears... any surprise (in the PCE data) beyond 2.6% could spell trouble for markets against a backdrop of tepid economic data and fading hopes for further interest cuts," said Derren Nathan, head of equity research at Hargreaves Lansdown.
Traders see the Fed lowering borrowing costs by 25 basis points for the first time this year in July, according to data compiled by LSEG, and investors will assess comments from Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee later in the day.
Multiple recent reports suggesting a stalling economy and concerns that tech companies such as Nvidia (NVDA.O), and Microsoft (MSFT.O), might be overspending on artificial-intelligence infrastructure have put Wall Street's main indexes on track for monthly declines.
The benchmark S&P 500 (.SPX), logged declines in five of the past six sessions and is set for its biggest one-month drop since April 2024. The tech-heavy Nasdaq (.IXIC), is down more than 8% from its all-time high and is headed for its steepest one-month fall since September 2023.
Nvidia edged up 0.7% in premarket trading after an 8.5% slide in the previous session, which saw $274 billion of its market value evaporate after the chip giant's weaker-than-expected quarterly gross margin forecast overshadowed an upbeat revenue outlook.
Dell (DELL.N), lost 3% after the PC maker forecast a decline in its adjusted gross margin rate for fiscal year 2026, hit by higher building costs for AI servers.
Peer HP Inc (HPQ.N), fell 2.7% after its quarterly profit forecasts missed expectations.
Megacaps such as Alphabet (GOOGL.O), and Meta (META.O), edged up 0.4% and 0.8%, respectively,
while rate-sensitive banks such as JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N), rose 0.5%, while Bank of America (BAC.N), inched up 0.3%.
Trump's latest threat to slap an extra 10% duty on imports from China hit U.S.-listed China stocks such as Alibaba and Xpeng , which fell 4% and 7.7%, respectively.
Trump also said his proposed 25% tariffs on Mexican and Canadian goods would take effect on Tuesday.
Crypto stocks such as MicroStrategy (MSTR.O), dropped 2.2% and Coinbase (COIN.O), lost 3.2% tracking bitcoin prices , which fell below $80,000.
Reporting by Johann M Cherian and Sukriti Gupta in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel and Pooja Desai
