LIVE MARKETS-US stocks rise on hopes China trade tensions calm

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U.S. STOCKS RISE ON HOPES CHINA TRADE TENSIONS CALM

The main U.S. stock indexes are slightly higher early on Wednesday amid hopes for a de-escalation in trade tensions with Beijing and as investors await 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.

Meanwhile, although no change in rates is expected at the conclusion of the latest FOMC policy meeting at 2 p.m. ET, attention will be on Fed-Chair Powell's press conference at 2:30 p.m. As High Frequency Economics sees it, Powell will likely "skirt all questions on Trump policies," and instead focus on data.

Most S&P 500 .SPX sectors are higher with consumer discretionary .SPLRCD posting the biggest gain. Materials .SPLRCM is the weakest group. That said, changes are relatively subdued with no one sector posting an absolute change of more than 0.7%.

Under the surface, regional banks .KRX are an outperformer, while gold stocks .HUI are under pressure.

Here is a snapshot of where markets stood around 09:42 a.m. ET:

(Terence Gabriel)

WEDNESDAY'S EARLIER LIVE MARKETS POSTS:

BENCHMARK TREASURY YIELD CRUISING ABOVE THE CLOUD CLICK HERE

CLIMBING THE WALL OF WORRY CLICK HERE

AUSTRIA, GREECE AND NORWAY LOOK PROMISING IF SMID DOWNTURN REVERSES - UBS CLICK HERE

WHEN DOES BIG OIL M&A TEND TO HAPPEN? CLICK HERE

STOXX SUBDUED ON MIXED EARNINGS CLICK HERE

EUROPE BEFORE THE BELL: FUTURES MIXED AS TRADE TALKS, CENBANKS IN FOCUS CLICK HERE

US, CHINA MOVE TOWARDS TRADE TALKS, BUT A DEAL SEEMS DISTANT CLICK HERE