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Futures: Dow down 0.14%, S&P 500 up 0.02%, Nasdaq up 0.32%

Jan 29 (Reuters) - Futures tied to the Nasdaq gained on

Wednesday as semiconductor-related stocks rose after chip

equipment maker ASML's quarterly orders topped estimates, with

focus also on a raft of company results and the Federal

Reserve's rate verdict later in the day.

The Fed's first interest rate decision of the year is due at

2 p.m. ET, with markets widely expecting the central bank to

hold its lending rate steady.

"Market pricing has shifted significantly higher since the

U.S. presidential election, and indicates basically zero percent

probability of a cut today," Amanda Sundström, FX & FI

strategist at SEB, said.

Markets have been on edge lately about President Donald

Trump's proposed tariffs, which could exacerbate inflationary

pressures and slow Fed rate cuts.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Tuesday

that Trump still plans to make good on his promise to issue

tariffs on Canada and Mexico on Saturday.

The December reading of the personal consumption

expenditures (PCE) price index, a crucial metric in assessing

the inflation trajectory, is due on Friday.

Point72 Asset Management's founder Steven Cohen said he

would expect the stock market to reach a peak soon amid

inflation pressure and uncertainties around Trump's policies on

tariffs and immigration.

On Wednesday, General Dynamics ( GD ), UPS and

T-Mobile US ( TMUS ) are some of the companies scheduled to

report quarterly earnings before the bell.

Earnings from "Magnificent 7" members Microsoft ( MSFT ),

Facebook-parent Meta and Tesla are expected

after markets close.

Apple ( AAPL ) will also report quarterly numbers later this

week.

Meanwhile, shares of semiconductor firms and related

equipment makers advanced in premarket trading after Dutch firm

ASML reported fourth-quarter bookings of 7.09 billion

euros ($7.39 billion), a number that far exceeded expectations.

KLA Corp ( KLAC ), Applied Materials ( AMAT ), Lam Research ( LRCX )

and Micron Technology ( MU ) advanced close to 4% each.

At 04:41 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were down 63 points,

or 0.14%, S&P 500 E-minis were up 1.5 points, or 0.02%

and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 67.25 points, or 0.32%.

The Nasdaq jumped 2% in the last session, while the

S&P 500 rose close to 1%, as Nvidia ( NVDA ) and other

artificial intelligence-linked tech shares recovered somewhat

from steep losses earlier this week.

Nvidia ( NVDA ) edged 0.2% higher after gaining close to 9%

on Tuesday. Its shares were hammered on Monday after Chinese

startup DeepSeek launched an AI model that it said was

cost-effective and ran on less-advanced chips, stirring doubts

about United States' lead in the technology.

Among other stocks, cybersecurity and cloud services firm F5

jumped 15.4% after forecasting second-quarter revenue

above estimates and beating first-quarter revenue estimates.

Chipmaker Qorvo lost 4.1% after reporting lower

third-quarter revenue.