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JD.com gains on new share repurchase program

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Paramount Global ( PARAA ) slips after Bronfman abandons bid

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Hershey slips on rating downgrade

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Futures off: Dow 0.07%, S&P 500 0.06%, Nasdaq 0.02%

(Updated at 07:25 a.m. ET/ 1125 GMT)

By Johann M Cherian and Purvi Agarwal

Aug 27 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures were muted

on Tuesday ahead of highly anticipated results from Nvidia ( NVDA ) and

crucial economic data expected later in the week.

The benchmark S&P 500 and the Nasdaq took a

pause from last week's rally on Monday as investors sold

tech-related stocks and shifted their focus to the upcoming

earnings report from AI chip firm Nvidia ( NVDA ).

Nvidia's ( NVDA ) shares, which led a recent bull-market rally, were

marginally up in premarket trading ahead of the company's

results on Wednesday, where it is likely to report quarterly

revenue that more than doubled and even a slight miss could hurt

shares.

Some investors are concerned about the chip designer's

ability to meet lofty expectations and have questioned the pace

of spending on artificial intelligence by Nvidia's ( NVDA ) largest

customers.

"Nvidia's ( NVDA ) earnings on Wednesday is by far the most important

event in global equities," said Peter Garnry, chief investment

strategist at investment platform Saxo.

"Given the underlying momentum in the AI industry and the

results we have seen from other companies in the AI ecosystem,

we lean in direction of Nvidia ( NVDA ) beating consensus and lifting

guidance for fiscal Q3 surpassing estimates."

Other chip stocks such as Broadcom ( AVGO ) fell 0.2%, while

Advanced Micro Devices ( AMD ) added 0.2%, after the

Philadelphia SE Semiconductor index notched a decline of

more than 2.5% on Monday.

At 7:24 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 31 points,

or 0.07%, S&P 500 e-minis were down 3.25 points, or

0.06%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 3 points, or

0.02%.

The blue-chip Dow closed at a record high for the

first time in more than a month in the previous session and the

benchmark S&P 500 is about 0.8% from its own milestone.

Traders are now betting on either a 25-basis point or a

50-basis point rate cut in September. Odds of the former stand

at a higher 71.5%, while those of a 50-bps cut are at 28.5%,

according to CME Group's Fed Watch tool.

A lot of the sluggish momentum in equities is likely to do

with a bit of indecision about what's going to happen at the

Fed's September meeting, Daniela Hathorn, senior market analyst

at Capital.com, said.

U.S. consumer confidence numbers for August are due at 10

a.m. ET, but analysts say the next major catalyst will most

likely be the July Personal Consumption Expenditure data due on

Friday.

Meanwhile, UBS Global Wealth Management raised the odds of a

U.S. recession to 25% from 20%, citing revised estimates of job

growth and the recent July labor report that showed softness in

the factors determining workers' income.

Paramount Global ( PARAA ) slid 5.5% after media veteran

Edgar Bronfman Jr withdrew from the race for the company,

clearing the way for Skydance Media to take control of Shari

Redstone's media empire.

Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com's U.S.-listed shares

gained 3.6% after its board approved a new $5 billion share

repurchase program.

Hershey fell 1.9% after brokerage Citigroup

downgraded the chocolate maker's shares to "sell" from

"neutral".