Wall Street opens higher ahead of Fed announcement

The US equities rebound continued as trading opened on Wednesday, with investors awaiting the outcome of the Federal Reserve policy meeting later in the day.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.3 percent at 28,072.95 about 30 minutes into the trading session, while the broad-based S&P 500 gained 0.2 percent to 3,411.97.

The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index, which has been leading this week's rally, edged up 0.2 percent to 11,215.01.

Stocks continued to recover after a two-week pullback and showed little reaction to the slower-than-expected increase in US retail sales last month, which rose just 0.6 percent compared to July, amid slow auto sales, flat online sales and a jump in spending at restaurants and bars.

The Fed meeting as always looms large, and while the outcome is considered a foregone conclusion, investors will be scrutinizing the quarterly forecasts from the central bankers set for release at 1800 GMT.

Fed chief Jerome Powell last month announced a new policy that will keep rates low even if inflation rises, so any renewal of his increasingly urgent pleas to Congress to provide more support to the US economy are likely to be the focus of attention.

"While the Fed has made it known that it stands ready to do more if necessary, we would expect the Fed chair to posit that additional fiscal stimulus is the greater need at this juncture," said Briefing.com analyst Patrick O'Hare said.

FedEx and Adobe helped set the positive tone on Wall Street, with quarterly earnings reports that blew past expectations with double-digit revenue growth.

FedEx surged 7.1 percent but Adobe dropped 2.0 percent.