US stocks rise modestly ahead of Fed decision

Wall Street stocks rose modestly on Wednesday ahead of a Federal Reserve announcement expected to include an interest rate hike and lay out the roadmap for additional increases.

About 20 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.2% at 26 537.16.

The broad-based S&P 500 rose 0.2% to 2 920.75, and the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index also advanced 0.2% to 8 022.11.

The Fed is expected to announce the third increase in the benchmark lending rate this year amid a robust economy and tightening labour market.

But analysts are looking to see if the Fed statement and subsequent press conference with Fed chairperson Jerome Powell highlights worries for a trade war and signals more aggressive rate hikes than the market now expects.

"The stock market has adopted the favourable line that rising policy rates are a reflection of a stronger economy, which is good for corporate earnings," said Briefing.com analyst Patrick O'Hare.

"There is no telling right now, though, how the market will react to the totality of today's monetary policy decision and outlook."

Dow member Nike fell 2.6% after reporting a 15% jump in earnings for the first quarter of the 2019 fiscal year to $1.1bn, with the company's profit margin lagging some analysts' expectations.

Fellow Dow member IBM jumped 1.8% following an upgrade by UBS.