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Futures: Dow up 0.23%, S&P 500 up 0.07%, Nasdaq down 0.09%

Sept 15 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures were muted

on Monday, kicking off a week where the Federal Reserve is

expected to resume its interest rate cutting cycle.

The U.S. central bank is widely expected to ease its

monetary policy by 25 basis points on Wednesday after a series

of economic indicators pointed to a worsening jobs market in the

world's biggest economy.

Investors are pricing in a total of 69.6 points in monetary

policy easing by end-2025, data compiled by LSEG showed. That

implies nearly three quarter-point cuts this year - one at the

central bank's every remaining meeting.

"We do not think (Fed Chair) Jerome Powell this week would

be more dovish than the current market pricing ... but the risk

is that he puts more emphasis on inflation risks and the

uncertainty around the tariff impact which would tamper market

expectations of an overly dovish Fed," said Mohit Kumar,

economist at Jefferies.

Meanwhile, Nvidia ( NVDA ) fell 2.8% in premarket trading

after China's market regulator said it will continue an

investigation into the AI chip leader after preliminary finds

showed it had violated the country's anti-monopoly law. This

comes while representatives from the U.S. and China were engaged

in trade talks in Madrid, Spain.

At 05:26 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were up 106 points,

or 0.23%, S&P 500 E-minis were up 4.75 points, or 0.07%

and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were down 23 points, or 0.09%.

Wall Street's three main indexes had logged weekly gains in

the previous session, with the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 hitting

intraday record highs on Friday as technology-linked stocks

remained resilient in a broadly declining market.

The indexes are in the positive territory so far in

September, a month considered bad historically for U.S.

equities. The benchmark S&P 500 has shed 1.5% on average in the

month since 2000, data compiled by LSEG showed.

Among the last datasets ahead of the Fed's September 16-17

meeting is a monthly reading of retail sales, due on Tuesday,

that could offer some more insights on the health of the U.S.

consumer, after a slightly hotter-than-expected inflation

reading last week.

In other moves, Warner Bros Discovery ( WBD ) tumbled 4.1%

before the bell. A source said on Thursday that Paramount

Skydance was preparing a bid for the Hollywood studio. Since

then the stock has surged more than 50%.