(For a Reuters live blog on U.S., UK and European stock

markets, click or type LIVE/ in a news window.)

*

Futures: Dow down 0.04%, S&P 500 up 0.17%, Nasdaq up 0.28%

*

Fed to begin two-day policy meeting on Tuesday

*

Oracle shares rise on TikTok deal framework report

*

August retail sales data due at 8:30 a.m. ET

(Updates prices, adds analyst comment)

By Purvi Agarwal and Sukriti Gupta

Sept 16 (Reuters) -

Futures tied to the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq nudged higher on

Tuesday after both the indexes closed at record highs in the

previous session, as investors remained expectant about interest

rate cuts from the Federal Reserve later this week.

Investors largely priced in a 25 basis point cut from the

U.S. central bank at the conclusion of its two-day meeting on

Wednesday, in an attempt to offset the deterioration in the U.S.

labor market, evidenced by numerous recent economic indicators.

Rate cut expectations remained unchanged after the U.S.

Senate confirmed economic adviser Stephen Miran to the Fed Board

and an appeals court rejected President Donald Trump's bid to

fire Fed Governor Lisa Cook.

Market participants are still pricing in a total of about 68

basis points in monetary policy easing by end-2025, data

compiled by LSEG showed.

An August reading of retail sales is among the last datasets

ahead of the Fed's decision, due at 8:30 a.m. ET, that could

provide some more insights on U.S. consumer health.

"Risks now seem to be much more on the employment side of

the (Fed's) mandate and the Fed easing monetary conditions

further will ... prevent a worse deterioration in the labor

market," said Luigi Speranza, global head of markets 360 at BNP

Paribas.

"We've seen still limited evidence of pass-through from

tariffs."

In stocks, Oracle gained 4.7% in premarket trading.

CBS News reported on Monday that the cloud computing giant is

among a consortium of firms that would enable TikTok to continue

operations in the U.S. if a Sino-U.S. framework deal was

reached.

At 7:08 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were down 18 points, or

0.04%, S&P 500 E-minis were up 11 points, or 0.17%, and

Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 67 points, or 0.28%.

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq closed at record highs on Monday,

helped by robust gains in Tesla and Alphabet,

with the latter zooming past $3 trillion in market valuation for

the first time.

Wall Street's main indexes have gained so far in September,

a month that is deemed bad for U.S. equities historically. Data

compiled by LSEG showed that the benchmark S&P 500 has lost 1.5%

on average in September since 2000.

Among other stocks, Dave & Buster's Entertainment

plunged 15.7% before the bell after the entertainment and dining

venues operator missed analysts' expectations for second-quarter

revenue and profit.

Chipotle Mexican Grill ( CMG ) gained 1.6% after raising its

share buyback authorization.

Webtoon Entertainment ( WBTN ) soared 39.4% after the online

comics platform and Disney ( DIS ) agreed to create a new

digital comics platform to feature comic content from Disney's ( DIS )

portfolio, including Marvel and Star Wars.

Warner Bros Discovery ( WBD ) fell 1.8%. TD Cowen

downgraded

the media company's rating to "hold" from "buy".