US STOCKS-Wall St poised for higher open with economic data, tariffs in focus

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Updates to before markets open

By Johann M Cherian and Sukriti Gupta

March 3 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes were set for a higher open on Monday, ahead of a crucial deadline on tariffs on top trade partners, while investors awaited a number of data reports to gauge the health of the world's largest economy.

At 08:29 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis 1YMcv1 were up 126 points, or 0.29%, S&P 500 E-minis EScv1 were up 26.25 points, or 0.44% and Nasdaq 100 E-minis NQcv1 were up 154 points, or 0.74%.

U.S. stock indexes were pointing to higher open after they logged their first monthly decline of 2025 in February, during which the Nasdaq also came close to a 10% drop from its all-time high due to fears of sticky inflation and other factors.

Recent reports of softening consumer demand have spurred fears of a slowdown as markets prepare for higher inflation once Donald Trump administration's tariff policies take full effect.

Trump's Tuesday deadline will end the one-month pause on 25% tariffs he imposed on imports from Canada and Mexico after reaching border control agreements.

However, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick's comments on Sunday sparked expectations that the levels of the duties might be lower than the threatened tariffs.

"Most of Wall Street still believes that the tariffs are rhetoric rather than reality," said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA Research."

"The purpose of the tariff by the administration is to make changes with the trading partners, not to end trade with (them)."

The Federal Reserve has left interest rates on hold since December in anticipation of sticky inflation, but this week's economic data, particularly Friday's non-farm payrolls report, could change the institution's outlook.

A survey from the Institute for Supply Management's (ISM) survey, due at 10 a.m. ET, is expected to show that manufacturing activity stood in expansion territory at 50.8 in February.

Investors will also focus on other crucial data on services activity and employment, lined up through the week.

Traders have dialed up bets on the Fed's 2025 monetary policy easing cycle, with futures pointing to at least two 25 basis points worth of interest rate cuts by December, according to data compiled by LSEG.

St. Louis Fed President Alberto Musalem, a Federal Open Market Committee voting member, is scheduled to speak later in the day, while Fed Chair Jerome Powell's remarks are due on Friday.

Trump has also threatened that an extra 10% duty on imports from China will also take effect on Tuesday, against which a report said Beijing is likely to retaliate with counter-measures on agricultural imports from the U.S.

U.S-listed shares of Chinese companies fell following the report on Beijing's expected moves, with Nio NIO.N and JD.com JD.O off about 1% each in premarket trading.

Meanwhile, megacaps such as Alphabet GOOGL.O and Amazon.com AMZN.O rose about 0.9% each, while chip stocks such as Broadcom AVGO.O and Advanced Micro Devices AMD.O added 2.4% and 1.9%, respectively.

Tesla TSLA.O rose 3.3% after Morgan Stanley reinstated the stock as 'top pick' among U.S. autos.

Futures tracking the small-caps Russell RTYcv1 rose 0.8%.

Crypto stocks such as MicroStrategy MSTR.O jumped 13%, Coinbase COIN.O rose 9.5% after Trump announced a proposed reserve of digital assets, ahead of Friday's White House Crypto Summit.

Chipmaker Intel INTC.O rose 5.9% after a report that chip designers Nvidia NVDA.O and Broadcom AVGO.O were running manufacturing tests with the company.