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Slew of Fed officials set to speak

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Novavax ( NVAX ) surges on revoking going concern doubts, Sanofi

deal

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SoundHound gains after Q1 revenue beat

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Futures up: Dow 0.27%, S&P 0.35%, Nasdaq 0.46%

(Updated at 8:25 a.m. ET/1225 GMT)

By Sruthi Shankar and Shristi Achar A

May 10 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks were set to rise on

Friday, as investors eagerly awaited comments from Federal

Reserve officials to get more clarity on the U.S. monetary

policy path, after economic data this week supported bets of

interest rate cuts.

Wall Street indexes were inching closer to record highs

following a selloff last month, as a slew of economic data

pointed to a cooling U.S. labor market, raising expectations

that the Fed will cut borrowing costs more than once this year.

A much better-than-expected earnings season also helped put

the benchmark S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite

on track for their third consecutive week of gains.

The blue-chip Dow, currently on its longest daily

winning run since December, was set for a fourth week of gains.

"This is the classic point of bad news is good news because

the employment data over the last two weeks has been what the

Fed has finally been looking for," said Hugh Anderson, managing

director at HighTower Advisors.

"Of course it isn't good for the job seeker, but it creates

an optimistic environment for the market because now they're

looking for their interest rate cuts."

Traders are currently pricing in 45 basis points of rate

cuts by the end of 2024, according to LSEG's rate probabilities

tool, with the first cut of 25 bps seen in September.

While most Fed policymakers have reiterated that the next

policy move will be a rate cut, doubt still remains about when

the easing will begin.

There is "considerable" uncertainty about where U.S.

inflation will head in coming months, San Francisco Fed

President Mary Daly said on Thursday.

Speeches from a host of Fed policymakers - Governor Michelle

Bowman, Minneapolis President Neel Kashkari, Dallas President

Lorie Logan and Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Barr - during

the day, could offer more clues on the rate path.

Investors will also closely monitor the University of

Michigan's preliminary survey of consumer sentiment for May,

which is due at 10 a.m. ET.

By 8:25 a.m. ET, S&P 500 e-minis rose 18.25 points,

or 0.35%. Nasdaq 100 e-minis climbed 82.75 points, or

0.46%, and Dow e-minis added 107 points, or 0.27%.

Nvidia ( NVDA ) gained 1.4% in premarket trading after

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co ( TSM ), the world's

largest chipmaker and a major supplier to Nvidia ( NVDA ), reported a

near 60% jump in April sales.

Novavax ( NVAX ) shares doubled in value after the vaccine

maker removed doubts about its ability to remain in business and

struck a licensing deal worth up to $1.2 billion with Sanofi

for COVID-19 vaccines.

Akamai Technologies ( AKAM ) fell 8% after it forecast

second-quarter revenue and profit below Wall Street estimates,

anticipating weak demand for its content delivery services.

SoundHound AI ( SOUN ), which allows humans to interact

conversationally with products such as phones and cars through

its technology, jumped 15.2% after its first-quarter revenue

beat market estimates.

(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar and Shristi Achar A in Bengaluru;

Editing by Shounak Dasgupta and Shinjini Ganguli)