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Futures up: Dow 0.18%, S&P 500 0.11%, Nasdaq 0.04%

July 1 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures edged higher

on Monday ahead of manufacturing PMI data, with focus also on

U.S. labor market numbers later in the week that will be parsed

for cues on the Federal Reserve's monetary policy path.

AI chip firm Nvidia ( NVDA ) shed 2.8% in premarket trading,

after choppy trade last week, along with some weakness in other

semiconductor stocks. Megacaps such as Alphabet,

Microsoft ( MSFT ) and Amazon.com ( AMZN ) were slightly up.

Focus will be on ISM and S&P Global manufacturing PMIs later

in the day. This follows Friday's personal consumption

expenditures (PCE) price index, an inflation report monitored by

the Fed, which was unchanged in May and underscored the

narrative of slowing inflation and resilient economic growth.

Also scheduled for the week are JOLTS job openings data on

Tuesday, and ADP employment, factory orders, ISM services PMI

data and minutes of the Fed's latest policy meeting on

Wednesday.

Non-farm payrolls data is due on Thursday, when trading will

be shut for equities on account of U.S. Independence Day.

Traders have largely stuck to their bets of around two

interest rate cuts this year, starting from September, according

to LSEG FedWatch.

The Nasdaq and the benchmark S&P 500 notched their third

straight quarterly gains on Friday, with the tech-heavy index

doing so for the first time in three years.

"It's half time, and it is definitely party time, at least

if you are in a large-cap, market-weighted index or the

Magnificent Seven," wrote Howard Silverblatt, senior index

analyst at S&P Dow Jones Indices.

"The market continued to have no problem with a delaying

Fed, geopolitical issues or the pending U.S. election ... July

should be dominated by earnings and, more importantly,

projections for the second half of 2024."

As the top few heavily weighted stocks have largely

supported Wall Street's upward trajectory on optimism around

artificial intelligence and interest rate cuts, the blue-chip

Dow has lagged its peers with a quarterly decline.

Owing to the lack of broad-based gains, market participants

have highlighted concerns over the sustenance of such a skewed

rally, calling for the need of greater diversification in

investor holdings.

At 5:36 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 73 points, or

0.18%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 6 points, or 0.11%, and

Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 8.75 points, or 0.04%.

Spirit AeroSystems ( SPR ) gained 5.9% following Boeing ( BA )

's deal to buy back the fuselage supplier for $4.7 billion

in stock. Boeing's ( BA ) shares were down 1.2%.

U.S.-listed shares of Li Auto rose 2.2% after the

Chinese EV maker's vehicle deliveries rose 46.7% year-on-year in

June.

Cryptocurrency-related stocks such as Coinbase Global ( COIN )

, Riot Platforms ( RIOT ), Marathon Digital ( MARA ),

and MicroStrategy ( MSTR ) gained between 1.8% and 4% after

bitcoin prices jumped 4.5% to a one-week high.