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Powell to kick off testimony at 10 a.m. ET

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CrowdStrike ( CRWD ) jumps on upbeat 2025 forecast

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JD.com climbs on Q4 rev beat, share buyback

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Futures up: Dow 0.19%, S&P 0.29%, Nasdaq 0.59%

(Updated at 6:55 a.m. ET/1155 GMT)

By Bansari Mayur Kamdar and Amruta Khandekar

March 6 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures rose on

Wednesday as investors awaited testimony by Federal Reserve

Chair Jerome Powell before Congress that could help determine

the central bank's monetary policy path.

Powell kicks off two days of testimony with a hearing at 10

a.m. ET (1500 GMT) before the House Financial Services

Committee, explaining to lawmakers why he is confident price

pressures will keep easing without upending the job market or

conversely why the window for a "soft landing" may be narrowing.

"Powell is likely to stick to the narrative of patience and

data dependency this week, but given the intense market focus on

Fed timing, there is potential for a market reaction,

particularly in the Q&A," said Seema Shah, chief global

strategist at Principal Asset Management.

Wall Street indexes closed more than 1% lower on Tuesday

amid weakness in market leaders Tesla and Apple ( AAPL )

and as investor focus shifted to Powell and the Fed

after signs of sticky inflation in February dampened hopes of

early interest rate cuts.

Traders see a 69.1% chance of the first rate cut this year

in June, as per CME Group's FedWatch tool. At the start of 2024,

they were betting on March as the starting point for the Fed's

easing cycle.

Investors will also be tracking private payrolls and job

openings data, due later in day, ahead of the crucial nonfarm

payrolls report on Friday.

At 6:55 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 73 points, or

0.19%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 14.75 points, or 0.29%,

and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 105.75 points, or 0.59%.

Megacap growth and technology stocks rose in premarket

trading, with Tesla recovering 0.9% after a 3.9% slide in the

previous session, while AI darling Nvidia ( NVDA ) rose 1.1%.

U.S.-listed shares of China's JD.com advanced 11.9%

after the e-commerce group reported fourth-quarter revenue above

estimates and upsized its share repurchase program.

Shares of cryptocurrency-linked companies such as Coinbase

Global ( COIN ) and MicroStrategy ( MSTR ) gained 5.8% and

11.3%, respectively, as bitcoin rebounded.

CrowdStrike Holdings ( CRWD ) soared 24.3% after the company

forecast annual results above Wall Street estimates, lifted by

strong enterprise spending on cybersecurity to counter rising

online threats.

Other cybersecurity stocks Palo Alto Networks ( PANW ),

Fortinet ( FTNT ) and Zscaler ( ZS ) rose between 4% and 4.6%.