US STOCKS-Wall St set for higher open after Fed indicates more rate cuts; Intel soars

By Purvi Agarwal and Sukriti Gupta

Sept 18 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes were set for a higher open on Thursday, a day after the U.S. central bank delivered a quarter-point interest rate cut, while chipmaker Intel climbed after Nvidia decided to build a stake in the company.

Intel INTC.O jumped 30% in premarket trading after Nvidia NVDA.O said it will invest $5 billion in Intel, throwing its heft behind the struggling U.S. chip foundry, but stopped short of giving it a crucial manufacturing deal.

Nvidia was up 2.7%, bouncing back from Wednesday's declines when a report said Chinese tech firms might stop buying its chips.

Intel peer Advanced Micro Devices AMD.O slipped 4.6%.

Meanwhile, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said that the softening jobs market was a priority for the central bank after it delivered the highly expected cut, indicating more reductions could follow at its October and December meetings.

Investors are pricing in 42.6 basis points in cuts by end-2025, implying nearly two quarter-point cuts, data compiled by LSEG showed.

Futures tied to the small-cap Russell 2000 index RTYc1 gained 0.9%, as these companies are likely to perform better in a low interest-rate environment.

At 8:52 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis YMcv1 were up 150 points, or 0.32%, S&P 500 E-minis EScv1 were up 42.5 points, or 0.64% and Nasdaq 100 E-minis NQcv1 were up 255.25 points, or 1.05%.

A weekly reading of jobless claims on Thursday came in at 213,000, below estimates of 240,000, as per economists polled by Reuters.

"With the Fed acknowledging that labor supply and demand have gone down and the worst of potential disruption from the tariffs is behind us, all that kind of comes together (to) where less restrictive policy is warranted," said Keith Buchanan, senior portfolio manager at Globalt Investments.

"But (it is) not necessary an emergency dramatic reduction is in the cards as well. So we (can) really see the next couple of meetings go the same way as this one did."

However, Powell tempered aggressive easing expectations of market participants, saying the cut was a risk-management move and the Fed did not need to move quickly on rates, leading the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq to close lower on Wednesday.

Still, the cut is expected to add to Wall Street's recent rally, boosted by monetary policy easing hopes and a revival of AI-linked stock.

The three indexes have gained so far in September - a month deemed bad for U.S. equities historically - where the S&P 500 has shed 1.4% on average since 2000, data compiled by LSEG showed.

Among stocks, CrowdStrike CRWD.O gained 5.8% after at least two brokerages raised their price target on the stock.

Nucor NUE.N slipped 3.9% after the steel company said it expected third-quarter profit to decrease across all its three operating segments.

Nike NKE.N was 1.6% higher after RBC upgraded the sportswear retailer to "outperform" from "sector perform".

Radian Group RDN.N rose 6.7% after the mortgage insurer said it will buy UK-based Lloyd's specialty insurer Inigo for $1.7 billion.