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Futures down: Dow 0.11%, S&P 500 0.21%, Nasdaq 0.34%

Oct 11 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures edged lower

on Friday, ahead of the third-quarter earnings season kickoff,

after hotter-than-expected September inflation data solidified

expectations for a 25-basis-point rate cut by the Federal

Reserve in November.

Shares of Tesla dropped 5.8% in premarket trading

after the EV maker unveiled its long awaited robotaxi, but did

not provide details on how fast it could ramp up production or

deal with potential regulatory hurdles.

Major financial companies kick off the third-quarter

earnings season later in the day. JPMorgan Chase ( JPM ) and

Wells Fargo ( WFC ) slipped about 0.2% each ahead of their

scheduled results before the bell.

With major indexes trading around record highs and the

benchmark S&P 500 up over 21% year-to-date, third-quarter

earnings will test whether 2024's rally can be sustained amid

uncertainty over monetary policy, geopolitical risks and the

upcoming U.S. presidential elections.

Wall Street closed slightly lower on Thursday after a keenly

watched Consumer Price Index report showed inflation rose higher

than expected in September, but an uptick in jobless claims

pointed to potential weakness in the labor market.

Still, bets on a 25-bps rate cut from the U.S. central bank

in November remained intact, with analysts pointing to the

impact of Hurricane Helene and an ongoing strike at Boeing ( BA )

as muddying jobless claims data.

"On the whole, there is relatively little in the data that

is likely to dispel the FOMC's confidence in inflation returning

towards the 2% inflation target over the medium term," said

Michael Brown, senior research strategist at Pepperstone.

Traders are pricing in a roughly 84% chance of a 25-bps

reduction at November's meeting and see a slight chance - about

16% - of no change at that meeting, according to CME's FedWatch.

On the other hand, Atlanta Federal Reserve President Raphael

Bostic said he was open to keeping rates unchanged next month.

Also on deck are Producer Price Index data and the

University of Michigan's consumer sentiment survey, as well as

speeches from Fed officials Michelle Bowman, Lorie Logan and

Austan Goolsbee through the day.

At 5:00 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were down 48 points,

or 0.11%, U.S. S&P 500 E-minis were down 12 points, or

0.21% and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were down 69.75 points, or

0.34%.

U.S.-listed shares of Chinese companies lost ground ahead of

a closely watched fiscal stimulus update from Beijing on

Saturday. Among them, JD.com lost 3%, Alibaba Group

dipped 1.8% and PDD Holdings ( PDD ) fell 2.7%.