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* Citigroup profit to take $3.8-bln hit on charges, reserves

* Netflix says ad tier tops 23 mln global monthly users - report

* US consumer prices rise more than expected in December

* Futures: Dow off 0.11%, S&P off 0.09%, Nasdaq up 0.01%

Jan 11 (Reuters) -

Wall Street's main indexes were set to open muted on Thursday after a hotter-than-expected inflation report dampened hopes of early interest-rate cuts, while regulatory approval for exchange-traded funds tracking spot bitcoin lifted crypto stocks.

A U.S. Labor Department report showed the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose by 3.4% in December on an annual basis, higher than the 3.2% climb expected by economists polled by Reuters.

Prices excluding volatile items like food and energy rose 3.9% in December year-on-year, compared with expectations of a 3.8% advance.

"What this data really shows is that the path to a soft landing is not a straight line. The hotter-than-expected inflation number means investors have to rethink how many rate cuts the Fed will be able to pull off in 2024, and when," said Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at Annex Wealth Management.

Futures contracts that settle to the Fed's target for the overnight lending rate between banks

fell

after the data. Market participants now imply about a 60% chance of a March rate cut, versus the 70% chance seen before the data.

A separate report showed the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits stood at 202,000 in the week ending Jan. 6, compared with expectations of 210,000.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury notes ticked up to over 4%, pressuring megacap stocks in premarket trading.

Amazon.com, Microsoft and Nvidia pared gains and were up between 0.5% and 0.8%.

The benchmark S&P 500 has recovered nearly 17% from its October lows, gathering steam in December after the Federal Reserve hinted it was reining in inflation and rate cuts were "coming into view".

Investors will also parse remarks by Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin, a voting member this year, later in the day.

Crypto stocks like Coinbase Bitfarms and Riot Platforms advanced between 3.8% and 7.3% after the U.S. securities regulator approved the first U.S.-listed exchange-traded funds (ETF) to track bitcoin.

At 8:47 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 41 points, or 0.11%, S&P 500 e-minis were down 4.5 points, or 0.09%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 1.5 points, or 0.01%.

Citigroup declined 1.1% after a filing showed the lender booked about $3.8 billion in combined charges and reserves that will erode its fourth-quarter earnings, to be reported on Friday.

Other banks like JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo are also set to report on Friday.

Lyft lost 1.5% after Goldman Sachs downgraded the ride-hailing platform's stock to "neutral" from "buy".

Netflix rose 2.0% on a report that its ad-supported tier has reached more than 23 million active users per month globally. (Reporting by Johann M Cherian and Ankika Biswas in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Amruta Khandekar; Editing by Pooja Desai)