US STOCKS-Wall St set for lower open over shaky Mideast truce; inflation data assessed

By Purvi Agarwal and Avinash P

April 9 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes pointed to a lower open on Thursday after the indexes rallied in the previous session, as cracks emerged in the fragile Middle East ceasefire, while investors parsed through an in-line inflation reading.

President Donald Trump vowed to retain military assets in the Middle East until a peace deal was reached with Iran and warned of a major escalation if it failed to comply, while Tehran said there would be no deal unless Israel ceases bombing Lebanon.

Few signs of traffic moving through the Strait of Hormuz heightened uncertainty around energy shipments, leading to a rebound in oil prices, though they remained below $100 a barrel. U.S. energy stocks inched slightly higher in premarket trading.

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq posted their biggest one-day jumps in over a week on Wednesday, as global markets cheered the two-week ceasefire, while the Dow marked its steepest rise in a year.

"What's important is there's been positive steps... Moving from the brink of a continued escalation in Iran to a more diplomatic approach has calmed markets down from some perspective," said Charlie Ripley, senior investment strategist for Allianz Investment Management.

At 08:45 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis YMcv1 were down 166 points, or 0.34%, S&P 500 E-minis EScv1 were down 16.25 points, or 0.24%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis NQcv1 were down 32.75 points, or 0.13%.

Investors assessed in-line personal consumption expenditure figures for February - the Federal Reserve's preferred inflation gauge - showing inflation rose 2.8% in February on an annual basis.

Separate data showed the U.S. economy grew 0.5% in the fourth quarter, versus 0.7% growth expected.

"(This doesn't) really change the narrative from a Fed perspective in that we have elevated inflation pressures, so that is going to keep them on hold for the time being," said Ripley.

Friday's consumer prices index number for March will grab the spotlight as investors wait to see the economic impact of elevated oil prices stemming from the conflict.

Money market participants are expecting only about 30% chances of a 25 basis-point interest rate cut by end-2026, compared with a 56% chance a day ago, per LSEG-compiled data.

They expected two cuts this year before the war broke out, while bets for a rate hike in December had also risen during the conflict.

Minutes from the central bank's March meeting showed on Wednesday a growing group of policymakers felt last month that rate hikes might be needed to counter inflation that continued to exceed the central bank's 2% target, especially as the war drove up prices.

Among premarket movers, Applied Digital APLD.O shares dropped 2.7% after the data center operator's third-quarter net loss widened from a year earlier.

Coreweave CRWV.O added 1.5% after the cloud infrastructure firm announced an expanded $21 billion cloud deal with Meta Platforms META.O, but gains were limited after it announced a $3 billion convertible bonds offering.