Minutes from the Fed's January policy meeting, due at 2:00 p.m. ET (1900 GMT), is expected to reaffirm the central bank's statement last month that it would be patient with further interest rate hikes after markets swooned late in December on fears of an economic slowdown. "The Fed minutes is straight going to give confirmation of what we've been hearing about - a slowdown of the balance sheet runoff and the Fed becoming dovish," said Jeff Zipper, managing director for investments at US Bank Private Wealth Management.
Technology stocks led the way up, putting the Nasdaq on course to post its eighth day of gains, with Apple Inc rising 1.0 percent and chip stocks climbing 1.3 percent. Financial stocks were largely flat ahead of the release of the minutes, but banks rose 0.20 percent.
President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that trade discussions with China were going well and suggested he was open to extending the deadline to complete the negotiations, saying March 1 was not a "magical" date. It was assumed until now that US tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports would rise to 25 percent from 10 percent if no trade deal was reached by then.
Trade-exposed stocks such as Boeing Co and Caterpillar Inc rose more than 1 percent, boosting the Dow. At 11:24 a.m. ET the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 11.02 points, or 0.04 percent, at 25,902.34. The S&P 500 was up 1.83 points, or 0.07 percent, at 2,781.59 and the Nasdaq Composite was up 15.78 points, or 0.21 percent, at 7,502.55. The healthcare sector fell 0.35 percent, weighed by a 7.2 percent fall in CVS Health Corp after the drugstore chain operator missed full-year profit forecast.