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Futures up: Dow 0.29%, S&P 500 0.20%, Nasdaq 0.14%

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Alphabet strikes $10 bln cloud deal with Meta, shares up

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Intuit falls after forecasting Q1 revenue growth below

estimates

(Updates before markets open)

By Shashwat Chauhan and Sanchayaita Roy

Aug 22 (Reuters) -

Wall Street's main indexes were set to open higher on Friday

following a recent string of losses as investors awaited Federal

Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's speech at the Jackson Hole

Symposium for insights into the interest-rate path.

At the Wyoming research conference last year, Powell had

promised to lower rates and support the job market when the

unemployment rate started to rise, while in 2022, he underscored

the central bank's inflation-fighting rigor.

Powell's address, expected at 10 a.m. ET, could prove

pivotal in shaping the rate-cut expectations for September.

Michael Matousek, head trader at U.S. Global Investors, said

Powell was going to "take the cautious approach".

"The tariffs are really starting to kick in, so he's

still going to put some caution out there and state that he

wants to look at data, see how things happen, because you didn't

have the tariff effect kick in until early in the summer,"

Matousek said.

Markets had initially ramped up the bets following a weak

payrolls report at the start of August and after consumer price

data showed limited upward pressure from tariffs.

Traders now see a 69.5% chance of a 25-basis-point rate

cut next month, down from an 85.4% chance a week ago, according

to the CME FedWatch Tool.

Other Fed officials speaking on Thursday appeared to be less

keen on the idea of a rate reduction next month.

Earnings reports from big-box retailers including Walmart ( WMT )

earlier this week offered a mixed picture as investors

sought fresh signals on the broader health of the American

consumer amid ongoing tariff pressures.

Against this backdrop, all three main U.S. stock indexes are

set for weekly losses, with the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq

on pace for their worst weekly showing of the month.

The S&P 500 took its string of losses to a fifth straight

day on Thursday. A broad-based selloff in heavyweight technology

stocks has kept U.S. equities pressured this week.

Information technology was the week's worst hit

sub-sector, while energy and real estate were

on track for mild weekly gains.

Meanwhile, UBS Global Wealth Management lifted its year-end

target for the S&P 500 to 6,600 points from 6,200.

At 08:12 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis rose 132 points, or

0.29%, S&P 500 E-minis gained 12.50 points, or 0.20%,

and Nasdaq 100 E-minis added 32.75 points, or 0.14%.

Among top movers, Nvidia ( NVDA ) slipped 1.3% in premarket

trading after reports the chipmaker had asked Foxconn

to suspend work on the H20 AI chip, the most advanced product

the company is permitted to sell to China.

Google-parent Alphabet gained 1.3% after reports

the company has struck a six-year cloud computing deal with Meta

Platforms ( META ) worth more than $10 billion. Meta shares last

rose 0.2%.

Intuit dropped 6.3% after the TurboTax-maker

forecast first-quarter revenue growth below analysts' estimates

due to sluggish performance at its Mailchimp marketing platform.

Workday shed 4.4% after the human resources

software provider provided an in-line outlook for the current

quarter.