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March PCE data in-line with estimates

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Intel ( INTC ) down after dour Q2 forecast

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Futures up: Dow 0.20%, S&P 0.85%, Nasdaq 1.04%

(Updated at 8:46 a.m. ET/1246 GMT)

By Shristi Achar A and Shashwat Chauhan

April 26 (Reuters) -

Wall Street's main indexes were set for a higher open on

Friday as robust quarterly results from Alphabet and Microsoft ( MSFT )

lifted growth stocks, while fresh evidence of progress on the

inflation front rekindled hopes of an interest rate cut this

year.

Alphabet jumped 11.7% in premarket trading after

the Google-parent announced its first-ever dividend, a $70

billion stock buyback and beat estimates for first-quarter

results.

The share surge could lead to the search giant's market

value topping $2 trillion, if premarket gains hold.

Lifting sentiment further, Microsoft ( MSFT ) gained 3.9% on

beating Wall Street estimates for third-quarter revenue and

profit, driven by gains from AI adoption across its cloud

services.

Other growth stocks also rose on the results, with

Amazon.com ( AMZN ) and Nvidia ( NVDA ) up 3.0% and 2.0%,

respectively. Meta Platforms ( META ) added 0.3%, after its near

11% drop in the previous session, which was its steepest fall in

18 months.

Aiding further gains, the personal consumption

expenditures(PCE) price index rose 0.3% in March, in line with

estimates by economists polled by Reuters. In the 12 months

through March, PCE inflation advanced 2.7% against expectations

of 2.6%.

Excluding the volatile food and energy components, the

PCE price index increased 0.3% last month against expectations

of a 0.3% increase. Annually, it came in at 2.8% versus

forecasts of 2.7%.

"This is a good number in (the sense) that it doesn't

hurt the confidence of the Fed that inflation's moving in the

right direction, but it doesn't necessarily add to their

confidence (that) it's going towards their 2% target on a

sustainable basis," said Steve Wyett, chief investment

strategist at BOK Financial.

Money markets priced in a

firmer

chance of a rate cut in September after the data.

Yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note

fell after the data, last standing at 4.6774%.

The upbeat earnings across several sectors this week have

propped up Wall Street's main stock indexes for weekly gains,

with the benchmark S&P 500 looking to snap three weeks of

losses while the Nasdaq is set to end four straight

weeks of declines.

At 8:46 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 76 points, or

0.2%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 43 points, or 0.85%, and

Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 182.5 points, or 1.04%.

Among other stocks, Snap surged 24.9% premarket

after the social media firm beat first-quarter estimates for

quarterly revenue and user growth. Shares of Pinterest ( PINS )

also rose 4.2%.

Exxon Mobil ( XOM ) lost 1.6% after the largest U.S. oil

company missed analysts' estimates with a 28% year-on-year drop

in first-quarter profit.

Intel ( INTC ) dropped 8.5% on forecasting second-quarter

revenue and profit below estimates as it faces weak demand for

its traditional data center and PC chips and trails in the

surging market for AI components.