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* Futures off: Dow 1.18%, S&P 500 1.31%, Nasdaq 1.57%

April 2 (Reuters) - Futures tracking Wall Street's main

indexes slid on Thursday as U.S. President Donald Trump signaled

more aggressive attacks on Iran, dampening expectations for an

end to the month-long war and sending crude prices up 6%.

In a closely watched address to the nation, Trump said

military operations would be intensified in the next two to

three weeks, a day after he told Reuters that the U.S. will be

"out of Iran pretty quickly".

The lack of clarity on the timeline and the objectives of

the conflict sent global markets reeling in March, with the

benchmark S&P 500 logging its biggest monthly loss in a

year and Brent crude prices marking their strongest monthly

performance on record. Crude prices were last up at $107 a

barrel.

Worries that higher energy costs could weigh on economic

growth and fuel price pressures have fanned uncertainty

regarding the outlook for the Federal Reserve's monetary policy.

Interest rate futures anticipate the Fed to leave interest

rates unchanged for much of the year, according to LSEG-compiled

data, against at least two rate cuts of 25 basis points each

before the war. Uncertainty fueled by the conflict had investors

price in close to a 50% chance of a rate hike at one point last

month.

At 3:05 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were down 551 points,

or 1.18%, while S&P 500 E-minis were down 86.75 points,

or 1.31%. Nasdaq 100 E-minis declined 379 points, or

1.57%.

Futures tracking the rate-sensitive Russell 2000 index

fell nearly 2%, while Wall Street's fear gauge, the

CBOE VIX index, spiked 2.1 points to 26.68. Expectations

for an imminent end to the war had fueled risk taking on Wall

Street over the past two sessions, sending the VIX to a more

than one-week low.

Investors flocked to the safe-haven U.S. dollar,

while other traditional safe-havens such as precious metals took

a hit.

Focus will be on developments around Elon Musk's SpaceX,

which has confidentially filed for a U.S. initial public

offering and is expected to target a $1.75 trillion valuation,

according to a Reuters report that cited two people familiar

with the matter.

Smaller peers such as Rocket Lab ( RKLB ), Planet Labs

and Intuitive Machines ( LUNR ) rallied on Wednesday in

anticipation of renewed investor interest in the industry.

Remarks from Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan later in the

day will be scrutinized for any clues on interest rates, while a

weekly report on jobless claims is also expected, ahead of the

non-farm payrolls report for March on Friday.

U.S. markets will be closed on Friday on account of the Good

Friday holiday.

(Reporting by Johann M Cherian in Bengaluru; Editing by Mrigank

Dhaniwala)