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US health insurers drop after Medicare rates disappoint

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Crypto stocks fall as bitcoin drops

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Calvin Klein-parent PVH down after dour FY rev forecast

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Futures down: Dow 0.36%, S&P 0.24%, Nasdaq 0.33%

(Updated at 7:10 a.m. ET/ 1110 GMT)

By Sruthi Shankar and Shashwat Chauhan

April 2 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures slipped 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 3.9% and 9.0% 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 lower on Monday after stronger-than-expected

manufacturing data raised doubts over the Fed's three interest

rate cuts that it had outlined 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 near 59% chance of the Fed cutting

interest rates by at least 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 7:10 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 143 points,

or 0.36%, S&P 500 e-minis were down 12.5 points, or

0.24%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 60.5 points, or

0.33%.

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.

Most megacap growth stocks were trading lower, with Tesla

leading losses, down 1.5% ahead of the release of its

first-quarter delivery numbers.

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

tumbled 22.0% after the retailer forecast an about 11%

drop in first-quarter revenue. Peer Ralph Lauren also

lost 2.7%.

Cryptocurrency and blockchain-related stocks dropped,

tracking an over 5% fall in bitcoin. Exchange operator

Coinbase Global ( COIN ), software firm MicroStrategy ( MSTR )

and crypto miners Riot Platforms ( RIOT ) fell between 3.3% and

7.3%.

Estee Lauder ( EL ) gained 2.1% after Citigroup upgraded the

cosmetics giant's rating to "buy" from "neutral".