US stocks up ahead of Apple earnings, Fed meeting

New York: Wall Street stocks rose a bit early Tuesday ahead of Apple earnings and the start of a two-day Federal Reserve monetary policy meeting.

The world`s biggest company by market capitalization, Apple is projected by analysts to report about a five percent rise in revenues compared with the year-ago period, according to analysts. Shares climbed 0.6 percent.

Briefing.com analyst Patrick O`Hare said a key question will be whether there is more room for Apple shares to continue rising following an "astounding" 26.6 percent rise since the end of 2016.

The Fed, meanwhile, is not expected to change interest rates but its commentary will be scrutinized for any shift in views on the economy and the prospects for higher rates down the road. 

About 15 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was at 20,947.18, up 0.2 percent.

The broad-based S&P 500 added 0.1 percent to 2,389.89, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index advanced a hair to 6,092.00.

Earnings were mixed. Pfizer dropped 1.9 percent after reporting first-quarter revenues of $12.8 billion, about $300 million below analyst expectations.

Mastercard rose 1.8 percent after reporting first-quarter profit of $1.1 billion, up 12.7 percent from the year-ago period.

Others due to report Tuesday included Coach, which gained 8.5 percent, and Aetna, which added 1.2 percent.