By Amruta Khandekar and Bansari Mayur Kamdar
(Reuters) -Wall Street's main indexes were set to open lower on Wednesday ahead of an inflation reading later in the week that would influence bets on when the U.S. Federal Reserve will start cutting interest rates.
The personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index, the Fed's preferred inflation gauge, that is due on Thursday is likely to show prices rose on a monthly basis in January.
Stocks have struggled in the days leading up to the report after a scorching rally in the previous week that was fueled by upbeat earnings reports and euphoria around the potential for artificial intelligence (AI).
Evidence of sticky inflation, a robust U.S. economy and pushback from some Fed officials have already led traders to delay bets of the first interest rate cut to June from March.
"People are certainly nervous if the Fed were to see numbers ... continuing to show inflation being stubborn," said Joe Saluzzi, co-manager of trading at Themis Trading.
"One thing off the table is the Fed is not raising rates, so the question is will the numbers be sufficient enough for them to at least start to get serious about when will the cut be."
Data on jobless claims and manufacturing activity are due in the coming days and the readings will be parsed for further clues on the strength of the economy and the outlook for interest rates.
Later on Wednesday, investors will watch out for comments from Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic and New York Fed President John Williams - both voting members this year.
Investors are also keeping a tab on attempts by the U.S. Congress to avert a partial government shutdown at the end of the week.
At 8:31 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 112 points, or 0.29%, S&P 500 e-minis were down 16 points, or 0.31%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 76.75 points, or 0.43%.
Most megacap stocks inched lower in premarket trading, with AI darling Nvidia lagging peers with a 1.1% decline.
Semiconductor equipment supplier Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) fell 2.2% following a subpoena from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in February, requesting information relating to certain China customer shipments.
Beyond Meat surged 58% as the plant-based meat company said it would ramp up product prices and "steeply reduce" costs this year after topping quarterly revenue estimates.
E-commerce platform eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY) added 5.1% as quarterly results beat expectations, while First Solar (NASDAQ:FSLR) climbed 6.3% after the solar panel manufacturer reported a profit in the fourth quarter.
Bumble fell 11.6% after the dating app operator forecast disappointing first-quarter revenue.
Novavax slumped 21.2% after the COVID-19 vaccine maker posted a larger-than-expected fourth-quarter loss.
Shares of cryptocurrency firms Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN) Global, Marathon Digital (NASDAQ:MARA) and Riot Platforms (NASDAQ:RIOT) jumped between 5% and 8% as bitcoin surged for a fifth day to cross $60,000.