Wall Street set to open higher on Apple results; Fed awaited

By Yashaswini Swamynathan

REUTERS - Wall Street was set to open higher on Wednesday, bolstered by strong results from Apple, and ahead of the Federal Reserve's decision on interest rate hikes.

Apple shares soared 7.4 percent to $103.30 in premarket trading after the company sold more iPhones than expected in the third-quarter and gave an upbeat current-quarter forecast.

The Fed is expected to keep rates unchanged as it wraps up its two-day policy meeting with a statement later in the day.

Investors will look for clues on the timing of the next rate hike as the recent set of strong economic data could make a case for an increase in the coming months.

Traders have priced in a 19.5 percent chance of a rate increase in September and a 42.8 percent chance in December, according to CME Group's FedWatch tool.

"The outcome of the Fed's meeting is pretty much baked into the cake today, but the language it uses may cause some movement after that point," said Mark Heppenstall, chief investment officer at Penn Mutual Asset Management.

Dow e-minis were up 48 points, or 0.26 percent at 8:20 a.m. ET, with 27,607 contracts changing hands.

S&P 500 e-minis were up 4 points, or 0.18 percent, with 139,202 contracts traded.

Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 36.75 points, or 0.79 percent, on volume of 23,859 contracts.

Global stocks got a boost after Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe unveiled a $265 billion stimulus package to reflate the country's economy.

Of the 157 S&P 500 companies that have reported results so far, 69 percent have topped earnings estimates. In a typical quarter, 63 percent of companies beat expectations, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Shares of Dow component Boeing rose 1.8 percent after the planemaker's quarterly revenue beat analysts' estimates.

Analog Devices' shares jumped 6.4 percent after the company struck a deal to buy Linear Technology for $14.8 billion. Linear's stock was down 3.1 percent at $60.58.

Twitter plunged 11 percent after the microblogging service provider reported its slowest quarterly revenue growth since going public in 2013.

Facebook, Amgen and Whole Foods are expected to report after the bell on Wednesday.

(Reporting by Yashaswini Swamynathan in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva)