US STOCKS-Wall St set for higher open in shorter Black Friday session

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Updates before market open

By Johann M Cherian and Purvi Agarwal

Nov 29 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks were on track for a slightly higher open on Black Friday, with Wall Street's main indexes set for monthly gains as the holiday shopping season kicked off, putting retail companies in the spotlight.

Investors will scrutinize the stocks of retailers expected to attract millions of shoppers with their deep Black Friday discounts, as customers start their year-end holiday shopping.

The National Retail Federation, a U.S. trade group, expects roughly 85.6 million shoppers to visit stores this year, up from 76 million on Black Friday in 2023.

Shares of Target TGT.N rose 0.5%, TJX TJX.N climbed 0.2%, Walmart WMT.N edged up 0.4% and Nike NKE.N added 0.4% in premarket trading.

"Retailers do a lot of importing. Inventory levels are very important to their profitability and ability to kind of control margins, so they will be one of the industries in the (tariffs) crossfire," said Ross Mayfield, investment strategist at Baird.

"But so far... (things are) looking pretty solid for the Black Friday, Cyber Monday sale."

At 08:38 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis 1YMcv1 were up 86 points, or 0.19%, S&P 500 E-minis EScv1 were up 8.75 points, or 0.15%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis NQcv1 were up 18.75 points, or 0.09%.

Futures tracking the small-cap Russell 2000 index RTYcv1 rose 0.7% as yields on Treasury bonds retreated further from multi-month highs.

Wall Street's main indexes closed lower on Wednesday, the eve of the Thanksgiving holiday, after data showed signs of sticky inflation, bolstering bets the U.S. Federal Reserve could remain cautious on interest-rate cuts in 2025.

The three main indexes were on track for monthly gains, with the benchmark S&P .SPX set for its biggest one-month rise since February. An index tracking small-cap companies .RUT hit a record high earlier in the week and was poised for its steepest monthly rise so far this year.

President-elect Donald Trump's victory in the U.S. presidential election earlier this month, along with his Republican Party winning the majority in both houses of Congress, provided the latest boost to equities.

Investors were pricing in expectations Trump's policies on tax cuts, tariffs and deregulation could spur economic growth and corporate performance. However, concerns that the policies could also stoke upside price pressures, slow the pace of the Fed's policy easing and weigh on global growth prevail.

Traders expect the central bank to lower borrowing costs by 25 basis points at its December meeting, but see it pausing rate cuts in January and March, according to the CME Group's FedWatch.

Speaking about Trump's plan to impose tariffs on the country's top trade partners, President Joe Biden said he hopes the president-elect will rethink his plan, saying it could "screw up" the United States' relationships with close allies.

Crypto stocks were up as bitcoin BTC= climbed 2%, trading at about $97,000. MicroStrategy MSTRO> rose 4.2%, MARA Holdings MARA.O added 1.4%, and Bit Digital <BTBT.O> advanced 2.2%.

Applied Therapeutics APLT.O plunged 75% after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration declined to approve its drug for the treatment of a rare genetic metabolic disease.

Analysts expect stock moves to be impacted by thin volumes after Thursday's Thanksgiving holiday.

(Reporting by Johann M Cherian and Purvi Agarwal in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai)

((johann.mcherian@thomsonreuters.com;))