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Updates with analyst comment

By Johann M Cherian and Sukriti Gupta

March 3 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures rose on Monday, ahead of a crucial deadline on tariffs on top trade partners, while investors awaited a number of data reports to gauge the health of the world's largest economy.

Recent reports of softening consumer demand have spurred fears of a slowdown as markets prepare for higher inflation once Donald Trump administration's tariff policies take full effect.

Wall Street's three main indexes logged their first monthly decline of 2025 in February, with the Nasdaq coming close to a 10% drop from its all-time high, due to fears of sticky inflation and other factors.

At 07:20 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis 1YMcv1 were up 197 points, or 0.45%, S&P 500 E-minis EScv1 were up 35.25 points, or 0.59%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis NQcv1 were up 172.75 points, or 0.83%.

Although, the Federal Reserve has left interest rates on hold since December, this week's economic data, particularly Friday's non-farm payrolls report, could change the institution's outlook.

A survey from the Institute for Supply Management's (ISM) survey, due at 10 a.m. ET, is expected to show that manufacturing activity stood in expansion territory at 50.8 in February.

Investors will also focus on other crucial data on services activity and employment, lined up through the week.

"The U.S. calendar will also be watched closely this week, as some soft data recently dented the notion of U.S. exceptionalism," analysts at ING Economics said in a note.

"We expect ISM surveys to reaffirm that the U.S. has started the year on a soft tone."

Traders have dialed up bets on the Fed's 2025 monetary policy easing cycle, with futures pointing to at least two 25 basis points worth of interest rate cuts by December, according to data compiled by LSEG.

St. Louis Fed President Alberto Musalem, a Federal Open Market Committee voting member, is scheduled to speak later in the day, while Fed Chair Jerome Powell's remarks are due on Friday.

Investors are also uncertain about tariffs, ahead of Trump's Tuesday deadline, that will end the one-month pause on 25% tariffs he imposed on imports from Canada and Mexico.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick's comments sparked expectations that the levels of the duties might be different this time.

Trump has also threatened that an extra 10% duty on imports from China will also take effect on Tuesday, against which a report said Beijing is likely to retaliate with counter-measures on agricultural imports from the U.S.

U.S-listed shares of Chinese companies fell following the report, with Nio NIO.N down 3.4% and JD.com JD.O off 1.9% in premarket trading.

Tesla TSLA.O rose 3.5% after Morgan Stanley reinstated the stock as 'top pick' among U.S. autos.

Megacaps such as Alphabet GOOGL.O and Amazon.com AMZN.O rose 0.9% each, while chip stocks such as Broadcom AVGO.O and Advanced Micro Devices AMD.O added over 1.3% each.

Crypto stocks such as Microstrategy MSTR.O jumped 12.9%, Coinbase COIN.O rose 9.4% after Trump announced a proposed reserve of digital assets, ahead of Friday's White House Crypto Summit.

Chipmaker Intel INTC.O rose 5.2% after a report that chip designers Nvidia NVDA.O and Broadcom AVGO.O were running manufacturing tests with the company.

(Reporting by Johann M Cherian in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)

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