NEW YORK, March 17 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks were expected to open lower on Friday as investors cash in on the previous session's fast-and-furious run-up that propelled the Dow Jones industrial average (^DJI - news) to its largest daily point gain ever.
Trading was also expected to be shaped by the release at 8:30 a.m. EST (1330 GMT) of the Consumer Price Index, which measures inflation at the consumer level. The gauge is looked at by the Federal Reserve, which meet on Tuesday to decide whether to raise interest rates, for signs of an overheating economy.
The Standard & Poor's 500 futures index for June was down 5 points at 1,473 while the Nasdaq futures index for June was off 24.50 points at 4,390.
``We are starting the day off with a little profit-taking,' said James Volk, co-director of institutional trading at D.A. Davidson & Co. in Portland, Ore. "If CPI is a negative surprise, it could hurt. We have a triple witching day today which makes it pretty hard to call the market because you are going to have a lot of volatility.
Friday marks ``triple witching,' or a session of heightened volatility when options and futures in stocks and stock indexes expire concurrently.
February's CPI was expected to show an increase of 0.4 percent overall, with only a 0.2 percent rise when volatile food and energy prices are excluded, according to economists polled by Reuters.
On Thursday, a gauge of inflation at the wholesale level, the Producer Price Index, rose by a stronger-than-expected amount including energy and food energy prices. But the core rate, which strips out food and energy prices, showed little sign of inflation at the wholesale level for the month of February.
``It would be very unusual to have a day like yesterday without some follow-through,' said Thom Brown, managing director of Rutherford Brown and Catherwood. ``But I think initially we will see some profit-taking.'
The 30-year U.S. Treasury bond was up 10/32 with a yield of 6.02 percent compared with Thursday's close of 6.04 percent.
On Thursday, the Dow Jones industrial average (^DJI - news) scored its biggest-ever gain in points, closing up 499.19 points, or 4.93 percent, at 10,630.60 -- just one day after the 30-stock index surged 320 points.
The broader Standard & Poor's 500 Index (^SPX - news) also racked up a record point gain, rising 66.32 points, or 4.76 percent, to 1,458.47. The jump dethroned the previous record of 49.57 points set Sept. 8, 1998.
Technology stocks made a comeback, with the Nasdaq composite index (^IXIC - news) soaring 134.77 points, or 2.94 percent, to 4,717.39, recovering partially from a 465-point slide that began on Monday. The index is up 15.92 percent for the year.
Among the stocks expected to move on Friday, commercial airline manufacturer Boeing Co. (NYSE:BA - news) and the union representing some 17,000 of its engineers and technicians said they had reached a tentative settlement of a strike. Boeing shares closed at 35-5/8 on Thursday.
Ford Motor Co. (NYSE:F - news) said on Friday it would buy British Land Rover for 3 billion euros from Germany's BMW (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: BMWG.F). Ford closed at 43-13/16.
America Online Inc. (NYSE:AOL - news) on Friday said it would buy out German media group Bertelsmann AG's 50 percent stake in AOL Europe and AOL Australia in an option-structured deal worth between $6.75 billion and $8.25 billion after Jan. 31, 2002. AOL closed at 61-15/16.
Nike Inc. (NYSE:NKE - news) on Thursday said its fiscal third-quarter profits rose 17 percent, beating Wall Street estimates, as the athletic apparel giant used currency market hedges to offset the revenue drag from a weak euro. The stock closed at 33-7/8.
Amazon.com Inc. (NasdaqNM:AMZN - news) is to seek shareholder approval for a proposal allowing it to increase its authorized common shares by 233 percent, to 5 billion, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday. It closed 66-1/4.
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