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

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

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Futures up: Dow 0.45%, S&P 500 0.32%, Nasdaq 0.20%

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Fed's monetary policy announcement due at 2 pm ET

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Uber ( UBER ) falls after Q1 revenue misses estimates

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Disney ( DIS ) shines as earnings top expectations

(Updates before markets open)

By Purvi Agarwal and Johann M Cherian

May 7 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures pointed to a

slightly higher open on Wednesday as hopes for a de-escalation

in trade tensions with Beijing firmed and investors awaited the

Federal Reserve's interest-rate decision later in the day.

Washington announced late on Tuesday that representatives of

the two countries would meet over the weekend in Switzerland for

ice-breaker trade discussions.

The meetings will follow weeks of tit-for-tat tariffs that

roiled financial markets and flagged concerns about global

economic growth.

Mixed signals from the world's two biggest economies

recently on the status of the negotiations led to uncertainty,

pushing many companies to shelve their forecasts. The U.S.

central bank, meanwhile, adopted a wait-and-watch approach

despite signs of slowing growth.

President Donald Trump's administration has said potential

deals with major trading partners are underway, but markets are

yet to see tangible results on that front.

"There's a lot of theater that's going to go on, but I would

think that (moving forward) sooner rather than later is probably

what both parties want," said Kim Forrest, chief investment

officer at Bokeh Capital Partners in Pittsburgh.

"It's become clear that a lot of the tariff talks are

more for discussions on how to change trade."

At 08:36 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were up 185 points, or

0.45%, S&P 500 E-minis were up 18.25 points, or 0.32%,

and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 40 points, or 0.20%.

The U.S. Federal Reserve is scheduled to announce its policy

decision on Wednesday afternoon, when it is widely expected to

hold interest rates steady.

Traders are now roughly pricing in a rate cut by July,

according to data compiled by LSEG, after a mixed bag of data

last week signaled a slowing U.S. economy and a resilient labor

market.

Comments from policymakers will be scrutinized for clues on

how they plan to approach monetary policy easing this year,

given the backdrop of Trump's criticism of Fed Chair Jerome

Powell and repeated calls for lower interest rates, which had

spooked investors in April.

Wall Street ended lower for the second straight session on

Tuesday after the U.S. administration failed to provide clarity

on the trade front.

The S&P 500 is more than 8% away from its record high

notched in February, even though all indexes have recouped

declines logged since Trump's announcement of "Liberation Day"

reciprocal tariffs on April 2.

Advanced Micro Devices ( AMD ) was up 1.2% in premarket

trading after the chipmaker forecast revenue for the second

quarter above Wall Street estimates.

Walt Disney's ( DIS ) quarterly results

topped Street expectations

, helped by increased visitor spending at its U.S. theme

parks and a surge in streaming customers, sending its shares up

8.4%.

Uber Technologies ( UBER ) dropped 4.1% as the

ride-hailing and food delivery company

missed quarterly revenue

expectations and said it anticipates a 1.5%

currency-related drag on second-quarter gross bookings growth.

Arista Networks ( ANET ) fell 6.5% after its quarterly

report, while Marvell Technology ( MRVL ) lost 8.4% after

narrowing its forecast for the first quarter of 2026 and

postponing its investor day.