US STOCKS-Wall Street steady before Fed; tech stocks under pressure

(For a live blog on the U.S. stock market, click LIVE/ or
type LIVE/ in a news window)
* Fed expected to keep rates low for prolonged period
* FedEx jumps on bigger-than-expected quarterly profit
* Spotify falls after Apple bundles services
* Indexes up: Dow 0.78%, S&P 500 0.57%, Nasdaq 0.24%

(Adds comments, updates price action)
By Shreyashi Sanyal
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-related stocks weighed on the Nasdaq.
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 Nasdaq briefly turned negative before regaining lost
ground, while the S&P 500 technology subindex .SPLRCT was flat
by midday trading. Eight of the 11 S&P sectors gained in early
trading.
Apple Inc AAPL.O , Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O , Facebook Inc
FB.O and Microsoft Corp MSFT.O fell between 0.5% and 1.3%,
leading to the biggest drags on the tech-heavy index.
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.
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. "The Fed has made abundantly clear that policy rates will
remain pinned near zero for as far as the eye can see," said
Seema Shah, chief strategist at Principal Global Investors.
"Yet, markets will be impatient for additional guidance on
how they will utilize their broader toolkit if they want
inflation to hit 2% over the forecast horizon, let alone
overshoot it."
At 11:33 a.m. ET the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI was
up 219.71 points, or 0.78%, at 28,215.31, the S&P 500 .SPX was
up 19.50 points, or 0.57%, at 3,420.70 and the Nasdaq Composite
.IXIC was up 26.60 points, or 0.24%, at 11,216.92.
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 jumped 6.4% after reporting
a bigger-than-expected quarterly profit, helped in part by price
hikes and lower fuel costs. Shares in rival United Parcel
Service Inc UPS.N gained 0.2%. Both stocks were among top performers on the Dow Jones
Transports index .DJT , which rose 1.3%. The index is often
seen as a barometer of economic health.
Spotify Technology SA SPOT.N slipped 3.4% after the
streaming music firm criticized Apple Inc, saying that a new
subscription bundle offer from the iPhone maker abuses its
dominant market position by favoring its own Apple Music
service. Eastman Kodak Co KODK.N jumped 33.9% 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 3.37-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE and a 2.69-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded 23 new 52-week highs and no new low,
while the Nasdaq recorded 62 new highs and 10 new lows.