Sept 8 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures edged higher on Monday, recovering slightly from Wall Street's lower close in the previous session amid hopes that the Federal Reserve could respond to dreary labor market numbers by lowering borrowing costs soon.
After Friday's worrying nonfarm payrolls report confirming a weakening U.S. job market, traders firmed their expectations for a 25-basis-point cut. The bets now stand at 90%, according to CME Group's FedWatch tool.
A jumbo 50-bps cut was also on the cards, compared to no such expectation before the jobs data was released.
Wall Street's main indexes closed lower on Friday, however, as the numbers stoked fears of a potential slowdown in the world's biggest economy.
Numerous brokerages have revised calls for Fed interest-rate cuts. Barclays now anticipates three cuts of 25 bps each in 2025 compared with two earlier, while Standard Chartered expects a 50-bps trim in September - double its earlier projection of a 25-bps reduction.
At 07:00 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis rose 68 points, or 0.14%, S&P 500 E-minis added 14.5 points, or 0.22%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis gained 84.75 points, or 0.36%.
Inflation data will be on investors' radar this week to gauge the impact of President Donald Trump's tariff policies on the U.S. economy, and whether it could strengthen the case for a bigger rate cut.
"The Fed's wait-and-see stance on inflation amid tariff disruptions made sense as it was hard to paint a rosy picture for the economy in such conditions," said Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote Bank.
"But if inflation doesn't pick up – which is highly surprising – then they'll have to lower rates to avoid political and public backlash."
A preliminary reading of the University of Michigan's sentiment survey and a revision to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' payrolls benchmark are also due this week.
With the Fed now entering a "blackout" period that bars public statements in the run-up to its September 16-17 meeting, markets will have to interpret economic data without fresh guidance from policymakers.
The S&P and the Nasdaq hit record highs on Friday, logging gains last week in a positive start to a historically dour September.
The benchmark S&P 500 has lost 1.5% on average in the month - its worst month since 2000 - data compiled by LSEG shows.
Among stocks, retail trading platform Robinhood Markets (HOOD.O), and marketing platform AppLovin (APP.O), gained 7.5% and 7.6%, respectively, in premarket trading. The companies are set to join the S&P 500, effective September 22, after being snubbed during the last rebalancing.
Hecla Mining (HL.N), climbed 4.2% on news of its forthcoming addition to the small-cap S&P 600 (.SPCY), index.
Drug developer Summit Therapeutics (SMMT.O), slid 23.2% after reporting mixed data for its lung cancer drug.
Reporting by Purvi Agarwal and Ragini Mathur in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai
