By Shashwat Chauhan and Bansari Mayur Kamdar
(Reuters) -Wall Street's main stock indexes eyed a lower open on Monday as investors looked ahead to commentary from Federal Reserve officials and key inflation data later in the week, while Boeing (NYSE:BA) rose after the planemaker said its CEO would be stepping down.
Both the S&P 500 and the blue-chip Dow logged their best weekly percentage gains so far this year on Friday, with the Fed sticking to its guidance of three interest rate cuts this year.
Traders now see a nearly 71% chance of the Fed bringing in the first cut in June, according to the CME FedWatch tool, up from around 55% at the start of last week.
However, late on Friday, Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic cited persistent inflation and stronger-than-anticipated economic data and said he now expects just a single quarter-point cut, instead of the two he had projected earlier.
A number of Fed officials, including Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee, are set to speak later in the day.
"Stocks could consolidate ahead of Easter," said Raffi Boyadjian, lead investment analyst at XM.
The crucial February reading of the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) price index, the Fed's preferred inflation gauge, is due on Friday, when U.S. markets will be shut for the Good Friday holiday.
"The other risk is that any reaction could be exaggerated amid low liquidity around the Easter holiday weekend, as U.S. markets will be closed on Friday and won't reopen until Monday, when most other major markets will remain shut," Boyadjian said.
A hot reading for the PCE index could dent market optimism around early rate cuts.
Final estimates of fourth-quarter GDP and a March consumer confidence reading are also due in the next few days and will round off the last trading week of the March quarter.
Meanwhile, HSBC became the latest brokerage to lift its year-end target for the benchmark S&P 500, raising it to 5,400 from the 5,000 it had forecast previously.
At 8:16 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 75 points, or 0.19%, S&P 500 e-minis were down 17.5 points, or 0.33%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 102.5 points, or 0.55%.
Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) and Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) slid 3.9% and 3.3%, respectively, in premarket trading following a report that China has introduced guidelines to phase out U.S. microprocessors made by the chipmakers from government personal computers and servers.
Boeing added 2.4% after the planemaker said its CEO Dave Calhoun would step down from his position at the end of 2024.
Cryptocurrency and blockchain-related stocks such as exchange operator Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN) Global, crypto miner Riot Platforms (NASDAQ:RIOT) and software firm MicroStrategy added between 1.3% and 4.1%, tracking a more-than-5% advance in bitcoin.
Most megacap growth stocks edged lower with Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) leading the losses, down 1.2% after Mizuho downgraded its rating to "neutral".
United Airlines fell 3.1% after the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said it was increasing its oversight of the company.