(For a Reuters live blog on U.S., UK and European stock

markets, click or type LIVE/ in a news window.)

*

Futures: Dow down 0.04%, S&P 500 off 0.03%, Nasdaq up

0.01%

Dec 10 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures were subdued

on Tuesday as investors refrained from placing big bets ahead of

a crucial inflation report this week that could influence the

Federal Reserve at its monetary policy meeting this month.

A November reading of the consumer price index (CPI), due on

Wednesday, is among the last major datasets ahead of the Fed's

Dec. 17-18 meeting. The report is expected to show a slight

increase in inflation last month.

Trader bets on the Fed delivering another 25 basis point

interest rate cut next week stand at over 86%, according to

CME's FedWatch. Bets had jumped after Friday's employment report

that showed a surge in job growth but also marked an uptick in

unemployment.

The central bank is expected to pause cuts in January, after

a host of officials last week hinted at a slower pace of

monetary policy easing on the back of a resilient economy.

At 5:28 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were down 19 points,

or 0.04%, S&P 500 E-minis were down 2 points, or 0.03%

and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 1.5 points, or 0.01%.

Wall Street's main indexes closed lower on Monday, pressured

by technology stocks whose declines were led by Nvidia ( NVDA )

after the Chinese market regulator launched an antitrust probe

into the AI chip giant. Its shares were down 0.9% in premarket

trading on Tuesday.

U.S. equities started their year-end journey on a broadly

positive note, with the benchmark S&P 500 and the

tech-heavy Nasdaq logging gains in their first week,

building upon a stellar November after Donald Trump's win in the

presidential election.

The president-elect's potential policies on tax cuts and

looser regulation in the incoming administration are expected to

boost corporate performance.

Among premarket movers, Oracle dipped 8.4% after

the cloud computing company missed Wall Street estimates for

second-quarter results and forecast its third-quarter profit

below estimates.

C3. ai climbed 8.6% after the AI software maker

raised its forecast for fiscal year 2025 revenue, while software

firm MongoDB ( MDB ) slipped 3.6% despite raising its forecast

for annual results.