April 11 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures pared

declines on Thursday after softer-than-expected producer prices

data soothed investor jitters about sticky inflation, keeping

hopes of interest-rate cuts from the U.S. Federal Reserve this

year alive.

A Labor Department report showed the Producer Price Index

(PPI) rose 0.2% month-on-month in March, compared with a 0.3%

increase expected by economists polled by Reuters. Annually, it

rose 2.1%, versus an estimated growth of 2.2%.

A separate report showed the number of Americans filing for

unemployment claims stood at 211,000 for the week ended April 6,

compared with an estimated 215,000 claims.

At 8:32 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 63 points,

or 0.16%, S&P 500 e-minis were down 8.25 points, or

0.16%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 3.5 points, or

0.02%.