US STOCKS-Wall St set to bounce on Trump's softened tariff stance

Updates with prices before opening bell

By Sruthi Shankar and Johann M Cherian

March 24 (Reuters) - U.S. stock indexes were poised for strong gains on Monday, helped by signs the Trump administration is taking a measured approach on tariffs against its trading partners, while investors awaited economic data for clues on the health of the U.S. economy and inflation.

U.S. President Donald Trump's administration is likely to exclude a set of sector-specific tariffs while applying reciprocal levies on April 2, according to media reports over the weekend that helped sentiment.

Investors picked up battered technology shares in premarket trading. Amazon.com AMZN.O rose 2%, Nvidia NVDA.O added 1.9% and Microsoft MSFT.O gained 1.3%.

Tesla TSLA.O jumped 4%, adding to Friday's 5.3% rise.

The main U.S. stock indexes closed slightly higher on Friday and marked weekly gains after Trump hinted at flexibility on a new round of tariffs set to go into effect next month.

"The market seems to be reacting in sync with those up-to-the-minute changes in tariffs," said Peter Andersen, founder of Andersen Capital Management in Boston.

"The default position for today's investor is to be very worried about changes that the administration has proposed - whether or not there are tariffs imposed or if he repeals them, or if he delays them, it just causes extreme volatility in the market."

Financial markets have whipsawed over the past several weeks as traders have been confronted by fears of a sharp U.S. economic slowdown after Trump announced a series of tariffs last month on some of its main trading partners including China, Mexico and Canada.

Several companies have also cited tariff uncertainty as they lowered their forecasts for the upcoming quarters. Data compiled by LSEG as of Friday showed, earnings of companies included in the S&P 500 are expected to grow by 10.5% in 2025, down by 3.5 percentage points since the beginning of the year.

However, U.S. stocks appear to have found a floor after weeks-long selloff that pushed the benchmark S&P 500 .SPX and the tech-heavy Nasdaq .IXIC down by 10% from their record highs - commonly known as correction.

At 8:37 a.m. ET, S&P 500 E-minis EScv1 were up 67 points, or 1.17%. Nasdaq 100 E-minis NQcv1 climbed 301.5 points, or 1.51% and Dow E-minis 1YMcv1 rose 390 points, or 0.92%.

Investors are also awaiting a slew of economic indicators this week including business activity data for March, weekly jobless claims and the Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE) price index - the Federal Reserve's preferred inflation gauge.

S&P Global's flash PMI readings later in the day are expected to show U.S. manufacturing and services sector activity slowed in March.

Among other single stocks, Dun & Bradstreet DNB.N rose 3.4% after the data and analytics provider entered an agreement to be acquired by private equity firm Clearlake Capital in a $7.7 billion deal.

Lockheed Martin LMT.N fell 2.3% as BofA Global Research downgraded the weapons maker to "neutral" from "buy".

Crypto stocks such as MicroStrategy MSTR.O advanced 4.7%, Coinbase added COIN.O gained 4.2% and Mara Holdings MARA.O climbed 4.4%, tracking a 2.6% rise in bitcoin prices BTC=.

(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar and Johann M Cherian in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)

((sruthi.shankar@thomsonreuters.com; within U.S. +1 646 223 8780; outside U.S. +91 80 6182 2787;))