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United Airlines gains on upbeat Q2 profit forecast

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Fed's Beige Book due at 2:00 p.m. ET

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Futures up: Dow 0.14%, S&P 0.28%, Nasdaq 0.19%

(Updated at 8:34 a.m. ET/ 1234 GMT)

By Shashwat Chauhan and Shristi Achar A

April 17 (Reuters) -

Wall Street's main indexes eyed a higher open on Wednesday

bolstered by megacap growth stocks, while investors parsed

corporate earnings and awaited commentary from Federal Reserve

policymakers for clues on the state of the economy.

Megacap growth names such as Microsoft ( MSFT ), Amazon.com ( AMZN )

and Tesla advanced between 0.5% and 0.7%

before the bell.

The benchmark S&P 500 and the Nasdaq closed

lower in the previous session, bogged down by climbing Treasury

yields.

Government bond yields were largely unchanged, with the

10-year note last at 4.6552%.

Fed Board Governor Michelle Bowman and Cleveland Fed

President Loretta Mester are scheduled to speak later in the

day.

Top U.S. central bank officials including Fed Chair Jerome

Powell refrained from providing any guidance on when interest

rates may be cut. On Tuesday, they said monetary policy needed

to be restrictive for longer, dashing investors' hopes for

meaningful reductions in borrowing costs this year.

Money market participants see an around 43% chance the

central bank could begin its easing cycle in July, according to

the CME FedWatch tool.

First-quarter earnings season was in full swing, with United

Airlines gaining 6.2% after it forecast

stronger-than-expected numbers in the current quarter.

Other airline stocks such as American Airlines ( AAL ),

Delta Air Lines ( DAL ) and Southwest Airlines ( LUV ) added

between 1.1% and 2.4%

JB Hunt Transport Services shed 8% after the

trucking firm missed Wall Street estimates for first-quarter

results.

U.S. Bancorp ( USB ) dropped 3.5% after the lender cut its

forecast for full-year interest income and reported a 22% fall

in first-quarter profit.

Travelers fell 5% after the insurance giant

missed Wall Street expectations for first-quarter core profit.

"Valuations are pretty high now, so there's not a lot of

leeway for bad news," said David Russell, global head of market

strategy at TradeStation.

"We've priced in a lot of good news and strong economic

growth might not necessarily immediately be a positive - if it

also means that we're going to be looking at higher interest

rates and what that means for valuations."

Later in the day, investors will watch for the release of

the Fed's "Beige Book" report, to assess the health of the

world's largest economy.

At 8:34 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 52 points, or

0.14%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 14.25 points, or 0.28%,

and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 33.75 points, or 0.19%.

Mobileye advanced 3.2% after Reuters reported the

Israeli automotive tech company was set to ship at least 46

million new assisted-driving chips.

Eli Lilly ( LLY ) gained 2.2% after its weight-loss drug

helped cut the frequency of irregular breathing in patients with

obstructive sleep apnea by as much as 63% on average, across two

late-stage trials.

ResMed ( RMD ) and Inspire Medical ( INSP ), who make

medical devices used to treat sleep apnea, fell 3.7% and 2.4%,

respectively.

Apparel retailer Urban Outfitters ( URBN ) eased 4.4% after

Jefferies downgraded its rating to "underperform" from "hold".