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Futures lower: Dow 0.16%, S&P 500 0.15%, Nasdaq 0.20%

Oct 9 (Reuters) - Stock index futures fell on Wednesday

as investors awaited the release of minutes from the Federal

Reserve's last meeting for insight into the interest-rate path,

while Alphabet dipped after the U.S. said it was considering

breaking up Google.

Shares of Alphabet fell 1.4% in premarket trading

after the U.S. Department of Justice said it may ask a judge to

force Google to divest parts of its business, including the

Chrome internet browser and Android operating system.

At 5:20 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were down 66 points,

or 0.16%, S&P 500 E-minis were down 8.75 points, or

0.15%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were down 40.25 points, or

0.20%.

Indexes closed higher on Tuesday, recovering from Monday's

selloff, with technology stocks leading the gains as U.S.

Treasury yields eased.

Trading has been choppy this week as investors reprice

rate-cut expectations and await fresh catalysts to provide firm

direction - primarily key inflation data and the start of the

third-quarter corporate earnings season.

Minutes from the Fed's September meeting, when policymakers

kicked off policy easing with a 50-basis-point rate cut, are due

later in the day.

"The tone of the Fed minutes should not change expectations

of further rate cuts. The Fed is still scrambling to catch up

with inflation slowing in the U.S. and started cutting rates

late, but expectations about the pace of easing may be set by

the minutes," said Paul Donovan, chief economist at UBS Global

Wealth Management.

Commentary from a number of Fed officials including Philip

Jefferson, Thomas Barkin, Raphael Bostic and Mary Daly are also

expected through the day.

Investors are overwhelmingly pricing in a 25-basis-point cut

at the Fed's November meeting, with some now seeing a slight

chance the central bank will keep rates on hold, according to

the CME FedWatch tool.

Prior to the release of strong employment data last week,

markets were leaning towards an outsized 50-bps cut in November.

Meanwhile, shares of Arcadium Lithium ( ARLTF ) soared 31.3%

after Rio Tinto said it would acquire the miner for

$6.7 billion. Rio Tinto's U.S.-listing slipped 1.2%.

U.S.-listed shares of Chinese firms dropped for a second

day, tracking a slide in domestic stocks as investors continued

to question if China would announce new stimulus measures.

Alibaba Group fell 3%, PDD Holdings ( PDD ) lost

3.6% and JD.Com dropped 4.2%

Investors were also watching for the impact of Category 5

Hurricane Milton as well as the escalating conflict in the

Middle East.