US STOCKS-Wall St rises as tech stocks rebound; Fed minutes on tap

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Indexes up: Dow 0.26%, S&P 500 0.24%, Nasdaq 0.24%

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Nvidia (NVDA) gains, will sell chips to Meta in multi-year deal

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Palo Alto Networks (PANW) drops after annual profit forecast cut

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Minutes of Fed's latest policy meeting due at 2 pm ET

(Updates on market open)

By Shashwat Chauhan and Twesha Dikshit

Feb 18 (Reuters) -

U.S. stock indexes edged up on Wednesday as technology stocks ?extended gains after recent weakness, while investors awaited minutes of the central ?bank's latest policy meeting for insight on the interest-rate trajectory.

Wall Street has been rocked this month by worries that rapidly improving AI tools could disrupt business models, leading ?to selloffs in sectors from software to trucking.

Broader AI-linked and megacap technology stocks also lost ground as investors demanded stronger ?evidence the heavy investments in the technology were tangibly boosting revenue and profits.

"We have not ?really seen much of a ?drawdown, just a lot of daily volatility, which implies that the market is more at a crossroads and waiting for some sort of a bullish or bearish catalyst ?to push... (it) in a new direction," said Sam Stovall, CFRA's chief ?investment strategist.

Most megacap and growth stocks rose on the day, with Nvidia (NVDA) gaining 1.5% after the company said it had signed a multi-year deal to sell Meta Platforms (META) millions of its current and future ?AI chips.

Other megacaps also advanced. Amazon.com (AMZN) rose 1.6%, while Alphabet ?and Microsoft (MSFT) inched ?up.

The S&P 500 materials and energy indexes added 0.6% and 1.1%, respectively, rebounding from the previous session's losses.

Conversely, declines in health shares and consumer staples capped gains, with retail giant Walmart (WMT) down 1.3% ahead of its results ?on Thursday.

Minutes from the U.S. Federal Reserve's January policy meeting, where it held its main lending rate steady, are expected ?at 2 pm ET.

Traders are pricing in a chance of roughly 63% for a rate cut of at least 25 basis points at the Fed's June meeting, the first with odds above 50%, according to CME's FedWatch Tool.

The personal consumption expenditure report - the Fed's preferred inflation gauge - will be in focus later this week and is expected to provide insights into inflation ?and how ?it could impact borrowing costs.

At 09:40 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 127.97 points, ?or 0.26%, to 49,661.16, the S&P 500 added 16.43 points, or 0.24%, to 6,859.65, and the Nasdaq Composite gained 54.94 points, or ?0.24%, to 22,633.32.

In earnings-led moves, Analog Devices' (ADI) shares rose 3.8% after the chipmaker forecast second-quarter results above Wall Street estimates.

Global Payments (GPN) gained 10.7% after the company projected annual adjusted profit above expectations.

Moderna (MRNA) climbed 5.7% after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration agreed to review its influenza vaccine, reversing an earlier decision rejecting the application.

Palo Alto Networks (PANW) dropped 9.3% after the cybersecurity company trimmed its annual profit forecast, while Cadence Design Systems (CDNS) added 6.5% after the chip-design software provider beat fourth-quarter revenue estimates.

Hard-disk drive maker Western Digital (WDC) plans to raise $3.17 billion by selling some ?of its stake in former unit Sandisk (SNDK) through a secondary share sale, sending Sandisk's (SNDK) shares lower 1.6%.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.5-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 1.23-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P 500 posted nine new 52-week highs ?and three new lows, while the Nasdaq Composite recorded ?33 new highs and 47 new lows. (Reporting by Shashwat Chauhan and Twesha Dikshit in ?Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai and Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)