Futures climb after Wall St sell-off; rate-cut jitters loom

(Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures recovered some ground on Wednesday from a sharp sell-off in the previous session, as data showed inflation did not cool as expected, fanning uncertainty on the timing for the Federal Reserve's first interest rate cut in 2024.

Rate-sensitive megacaps like Apple and Microsoft, and chip stocks like Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices rebounded, up between 0.3% and 1.6% in premarket trading as yields on U.S. Treasury notes - an indicator for interest rate expectations - eased slightly from over two-month highs. [US/]

Wall Street's main indexes slumped to over one-week lows on Tuesday, with the blue-chip Dow marking its worst day in 11 months, as data showed underlying inflation in January (core prices) stayed at nearly double the Fed's 2% target, forcing investors to reassess expectations for an interest rate cut in the first half of this year.

Euphoria around an early start to monetary policy easing had fueled a rally since November, paving the way for a bull market for the S&P 500 this year, and now policymakers might have to wait a bit longer for more evidence of easing price pressures. Still, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Tuesday's data showed progress in the fight against inflation.

Bets for a rate reduction in May of at least 25 basis points are at 41%, down from 63% earlier in the week, while expectations for June stand at 76%, the CME FedWatch tool showed.

Markets will be keen on what the first batch of central bankers have to say on the monetary policy outlook after Tuesday's data. Remarks from Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee and Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Barr are expected through the day.

At 5:47 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 85 points, or 0.22%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 19 points, or 0.38%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 105.25 points, or 0.6%.

As the earnings season draws to a close, investors await reports from Charles River, Kraft Heinz, CME Group, Generac and CNH Industrial before the bell.

Among early movers, Lyft surged 15.7% after the ride-hailing platform beat estimates for quarterly profit and said it would generate positive free cash flow for the first time in 2024. Rival Uber also gained 2.3%.

Robinhood Markets posted a surprise profit for the fourth quarter, driven by higher interest income from customers paying back loans and a rebound in trading, sending shares of the online brokerage up 11.9%.

Intuitive Machines fell 10.7% after the aerospace firm's planned launch of a robotic moon lander was postponed for at least a day, less than two hours before liftoff time on Wednesday.

Crypto stocks like Coinbase, Marathon Digital and Riot surged between 7.2% and 11.9% as bitcoin prices jumped to an over two-year high.

Citigroup rose 1.4% after Piper Sandler lifted its rating on the lender to "overweight" from "neutral".

(Reporting by Johann M Cherian in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)