US STOCKS-S&P 500, Dow rise before Fed; tech stocks pull down Nasdaq

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* Fed expected to keep rates low for prolonged period
* FedEx jumps on bigger-than-expected quarterly profit
* Spotify falls after Apple bundles services
* Dow up 0.69%, S&P 500 up 0.25%, Nasdaq down 0.29%

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By Shreyashi Sanyal and Devik Jain
Sept 16 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 and Dow Jones indexes rose
on Wednesday on hopes that the Federal Reserve would continue to
keep interest rates low for a prolonged period, while a slide in
tech stocks dragged the Nasdaq lower.
The central bank's two-day meeting is its first under a
newly adopted framework that promises to shoot for inflation
above 2% to make up for periods where it is running below that
target. The Federal Open Market Committee will release its policy
statement and economic projections at 2 p.m. ET (1800 GMT),
followed by Fed Chair Jerome Powell's virtual news briefing half
an hour later. "They have a very loose monetary policy right now and we
expect that to continue ... the Federal Reserve is the stock
market's best friend," said Christopher Grisanti, chief equity
strategist at MAI Capital Management in Cleveland.
The Fed will also be releasing its "dot plot" projection of
interest rates, which is a chart of dots representing the
anonymous, individual rate projections of Fed policymakers for
the next few years.
The Nasdaq flitted between gains and losses in choppy
afternoon trading, while the S&P 500 technology subindex
.SPLRCT fell 0.6%.
Apple Inc AAPL.O , Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O , Facebook Inc
FB.O and Microsoft Corp MSFT.O fell between 0.6% and 2%,
accounting for the biggest drags on the tech-heavy index.
"The large cap tech stocks obviously have done great
especially in the face of a pandemic. Now they're taking a
breather," Grisanti said.
Wall Street's main indexes attempted a comeback from a
tech-driven slump earlier in the month that saw the Nasdaq
Composite index .IXIC slip into correction territory in just
three sessions.
At 12:54 p.m. ET the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI was
up 194.15 points, or 0.69%, at 28,189.75, the S&P 500 .SPX was
up 8.42 points, or 0.25%, at 3,409.62 and the Nasdaq Composite
.IXIC was down 32.32 points, or 0.29%, at 11,158.00.
Mixed data has also kept investors on edge about the pace of
an economic recovery as latest figures showed U.S. consumer
spending slowed in August, with a key retail sales gauge
unexpectedly declining. Delivery firm FedEx Corp FDX.N rose 6.1% after reporting a
bigger-than-expected quarterly profit, helped in part by price
hikes and lower fuel costs. FedEx gained the most on the Dow Jones Transports index
.DJT , which rose 1.2%. The index is often seen as a barometer
of economic health.
Spotify Technology SA SPOT.N fell 1.5% after Apple Inc
announced a bundled plan for all its services that lowered the
cost of Apple Music subscriptions. Eastman Kodak Co KODK.N jumped 37% after a law firm hired
by the photography equipment maker said its chief executive
officer's securities transactions around the time the company
learned it could receive a $765 million government loan did not
violate internal policies. Advancing issues outnumbered decliners for a 3.13-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE and a 2.53-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded 23 new 52-week highs and no new low,
while the Nasdaq recorded 67 new highs and 10 new lows.