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Paramount Global ( PARAA ) up after Skydance merger announcement

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Boeing ( BA ) rises after plea deal in 737 MAX probe

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Powell Congressional testimony on Tuesday and Wednesday

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Futures: Dow up 0.06%, S&P 500 flat, Nasdaq down 0.01%

(Updated at 7:18 a.m. ET/1118 GMT)

By Lisa Pauline Mattackal

July 8 (Reuters) -

U.S. stock index futures were little changed on Monday, at

the beginning of a packed week that includes the release of a

key inflation reading, Congressional testimony from Federal

Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and the start of earnings season.

Expectations for interest-rate cuts as early as

September received a further boost after Friday's

nonfarm payrolls

report showed U.S. job growth slowed in June, the latest

data to point to weakness in the labor market.

Investors, however, are focused on picking up clues for

a clearer picture of the Fed's monetary policy path for the rest

of the year.

Traders now see a 69% chance of a 25-basis-point cut at

the Fed's September meeting, up from 60% a week ago, while

expecting an overall cut of about 50 bps for the year, according

to CME's FedWatch and LSEG data.

On the economic data front, Thursday's release of June's

consumer price index data will be closely watched for

indications on whether price pressures are easing.

On a monthly basis, U.S. headline inflation is expected to

rise slightly, by 0.1%, from a flat reading in the previous

month, while core inflation is expected to rise 0.2%.

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq continued to rally

on Friday, closing at all-time highs as megacap tech stocks such

as Meta Platforms ( META ) and Microsoft ( MSFT ) touched record

highs.

Tesla shares slipped about 1% in premarket trading,

after jumping to their highest level this year on Friday, while

Nvidia ( NVDA ) gained 0.6%.

Major banks including Citigroup ( C/PN ), JPMorgan Chase ( JPM )

and Wells Fargo ( WFC ) are scheduled to kick off the

second-quarter corporate earnings season on July 12.

Shares of JPMorgan ( JPM ) slipped 0.3% in premarket trading after

broad losses saw the S&P 500 banks index end Friday's

session down 1.6%.

Investors are focusing on the earnings season to see if

a stratospheric jump in shares of just a handful of megacap

stocks such as Nvidia ( NVDA ) can justify their pricey valuations.

"The U.S. Q2 corporate earnings season is going to be one of

the pivotal keys for equity sentiment for the remainder of the

year," said Marc Ostwald, global strategist at ADM Investor

Services International.

"Year to date, only 24 companies have outperformed the

S&P 500 index, making for a rather fragile and lopsided

performance profile."

Markets will also closely watch Powell's semi-annual

testimony before U.S. Senate and House committees on July 9 and

10, as well as comments from several other Fed officials

throughout the week.

At 7:18 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 22 points, or

0.06%, S&P 500 e-minis remained unchanged, and Nasdaq

100 e-minis were down 2 points, or 0.01%.

Paramount Global ( PARAA ) rose 2.5% after Sunday's

announcement that the company would merge with Skydance Media,

which has offered $4.5 billion in cash or stock and an extra

$1.5 billion to shore up Paramount's balance sheet.

Planemaker Boeing gained 1.0% after it agreed to

plead guilty to a criminal fraud conspiracy charge and pay a

fine of $243.6 million, to resolve a U.S. Justice Department

investigation into two fatal 737 MAX crashes.

(Reporting by Lisa Mattackal in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil

D'Silva and Pooja Desai)