US STOCKS-Wall St set for gains on China trade de-escalation hopes; Fed verdict awaited

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 YMcv1 were up 185 points, or 0.45%, S&P 500 E-minis EScv1 were up 18.25 points, or 0.32%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis NQcv1 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.O was up 1.2% in premarket trading after the chipmaker forecast revenue for the second quarter above Wall Street estimates.

Walt Disney's DIS.N 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.N 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.N fell 6.5% after its quarterly report, while Marvell Technology MRVL.O lost 8.4% after narrowing its forecast for the first quarter of 2026 and postponing its investor day.