June 27 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures held gains

on Friday after a benign inflation reading kept alive hopes of

interest-rate cuts by the U.S. Federal Reserve.

A Commerce Department report showed the Personal Consumption

Expenditures Price index rose 0.1% in May compared with a 0.1%

increase expected by economists polled by Reuters. Annually, it

stood at 2.3% against an estimate of 2.3%.

Excluding volatile items such as food and energy, the index

rose 2.7% on an annual basis in the previous month, compared

with a forecast of a 2.6% increase.

At 08:32 a.m., Dow E-minis were up 120 points, or

0.27%, S&P 500 E-minis were up 16.25 points, or 0.26%,

and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 77.5 points, or 0.34%.