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Futures down: Dow 0.30%, S&P 0.12%, Nasdaq 0.16%

April 2 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures dipped on

Tuesday, hurt by sharp losses in shares of health insurers,

while investors awaited more economic data and comments from

Federal Reserve officials for hints on the timing of interest

rate cuts.

Shares of UnitedHealth ( UNH ), CVS Health ( CVS ) and

Humana fell between 3.8% and 8.7% in premarket trading

as the U.S. government's unchanged reimbursement rates for

providers of Medicare Advantage health plans signaled that

insurers' margins would likely remain under pressure next year.

The blue-chip Dow and the benchmark S&P 500

closed down on Monday after stronger-than-expected manufacturing

data raised doubts over the Fed's three interest rate cuts that

it had outlined in its forecast at the last policy meeting.

Data expected on Tuesday includes factory orders and job

openings in February. However, the main focus is on Friday's

U.S. non-farm payrolls data, which is expected to show job

additions slowed in March although average earnings ticked

higher compared to the previous month.

"Markets will be looking for a figure that is neither too

hot as an overheated market might postpone rate cuts, or too

cold as disappointing data would increase speculation of a hard

economic landing," said Russ Mould, investment director at AJ

Bell.

Traders are pricing in a 62% chance of the Fed cutting

interest rates by 25 basis points in June, as well as see two

more cuts in 2024, as per CMEGroup's FedWatch tool.

A host of Fed officials including New York Fed President

John Williams, Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester and San

Francisco President Mary Daly are scheduled to speak later in

the day.

At 5:53 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 119 points,

or 0.3%, S&P 500 e-minis were down 6.5 points, or 0.12%,

and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 29.5 points, or 0.16%.

The subdued start to the new quarter comes on the heels of

the S&P 500's strongest first quarter in five years and all the

three major indexes hitting record highs, helped by optimism

around artificial intelligence and expectations of easing

monetary policy.

Among other stocks, Calvin Klein-parent PVH Corp's shares

tumbled 23.4% after the retailer forecast an about 11%

drop in first-quarter revenue.

(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini

Ganguli)