S&P 500, Dow set for slightly higher open after in-line inflation data

The benchmark S&P 500 and the Dow were set to open higher on Friday after data showed inflation rose as expected in January, while concerns that U.S. President Donald Trump's policies could further fuel price pressures kept investors cautious. At 8:54 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were up 201 points, or 0.46%, S&P 500 E-minis were up 14.75 points, or 0.25% and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 10 points, or 0.05%. A Commerce Department report showed the Personal Consumption Expenditures Price index rose 2.5% in January on an annual basis, as expected by economists polled by Reuters. Excluding volatile items such as food and energy, the index rose 2.6% on an annual basis in the previous month, also in line with estimates. Megacaps such as Alphabet and Meta edged up 0.2% and 0.5%, respectively, while rate-sensitive banks such as JPMorgan Chase & Co rose 1% and Bank of America inched up 0.9% in premarket trading. Traders see the Fed lowering borrowing costs by 61 basis points, little changed from before the report, according to data compiled by LSEG. Investors will assess comments from Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee later in the day."The good news is that there wasn't an upside surprise," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley Wealth. "But the bad news is we sit here in a market that's (fallen) over the last five days and there's still an ongoing concern about the fire hose of policy proposals out there that have investors on the backside." Friday's report is important for investors trying to gauge the central bank's next policy move, after policymakers reiterated a hawkish stance on interest rates. The fear has been that the new Donald Trump administration's policies, especially trade restrictions, could lead to a rise in domestic inflation.Multiple recent reports suggesting a stalling economy and concerns that tech companies such as Nvidia and Microsoft might be overspending on artificial-intelligence infrastructure have put Wall Street's main indexes on track for monthly declines.The benchmark S&P 500 logged declines in five of the past six sessions and is set for its biggest one-month drop since April 2024. The tech-heavy Nasdaq is down more than 8% from its all-time high and is headed for its steepest one-month fall since September 2023.Nvidia fell 1.7% after an 8.5% slide in the previous session, which saw $274 billion of its market value evaporate after the chip giant's weaker-than-expected quarterly gross margin forecast overshadowed an upbeat revenue outlook.Dell lost 7.6% as the PC maker forecast a decline in its adjusted gross margin rate for fiscal 2026, hit by higher building costs for AI servers.Peer HP Inc fell 3.8% after its quarterly profit forecasts missed expectations.Trump's latest threat to slap an extra 10% duty on imports from China hit U.S.-listed China stocks such as Alibaba and Xpeng , which fell 3.5% and 7.1%, respectively. Trump also said his proposed 25% tariffs on Mexican and Canadian goods would take effect on Tuesday.Crypto stocks such as MicroStrategy and Coinbase lost 1% each tracking bitcoin prices , which fell below $80,000.