US STOCKS-Wall Street moves higher; Fed policy meeting on the horizon

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* Fed likely to resist pressure to cut rates this week
* FOMC due to release statement on Wednesday
* Array surges nearly 60% after Pfizer's $10.64 bln deal
* Indexes up: Dow 0.05%, S&P 0.20%, Nasdaq 0.72%

(Updates to open)
By Shreyashi Sanyal
June 17 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks ticked higher on Monday,
with the tech-heavy Nasdaq powering ahead, as investors awaited
a pivotal Federal Reserve meeting for clues on the path ahead
for interest rates.
The central bank is expected to leave borrowing costs
unchanged at its two-day policy meeting starting Tuesday, but
market expectations are for a rate cut as early as July.
The S&P 500 index .SPX has risen 5% so far this month on
hopes of a rate cut in the face of weaker economic data and
heightening global trade tensions, but that rally petered out in
the past week.
"I think the focus will be on what the Fed sounds like in
the meeting this week," said Scott Brown, chief economist at
Raymond James in St. Petersburg, Florida.
"Jerome Powell has got to be very careful about what he
says, and how he frames it because you don't want the market to
panic if the Fed's going to be behind the curve."
The Fed's policy-setting committee is due to release its
statement at 2 p.m. EDT (1800 GMT) on Wednesday, with Fed Chair
Powell holding a press conference shortly after.
The Nasdaq Composite index .IXIC rose, boosted by 1% to 3%
gains in shares of marquee companies such Facebook Inc FB.O ,
Apple Inc AAPL.O , Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O , Microsoft Corp
MSFT.O and Alphabet Inc GOOGL.O .
At 10:01 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI
was up 13.99 points, or 0.05%, at 26,103.60 and the S&P was up
5.82 points, or 0.20%, at 2,892.80. The Nasdaq was up 56.00
points, or 0.72%, at 7,852.66.
Investors also braced for the Group of 20 summit at the end
of the month, which has fueled hopes of progress on resolving
the prolonged trade war between the United States and China.
Capping the gains on the Dow index was the 3.48% drop in Dow
Inc DOW.N after brokerage BMO Capital Markets downgraded the
chemicals maker's stock to "market perform" on rising macro
uncertainty.
Banking stocks .SPXBK gained 0.16%, while the broader S&P
500 financial sector .SPSY edged up 0.08%.
Shares of Walt Disney Co DIS.N dropped 1.21% after a
report that Imperial Capital had downgraded the entertainment
conglomerate's shares to "in-line."
Array Biopharma Inc ARRY.O jumped nearly 57.79% after
Pfizer Inc PFE.N agreed to buy the drugmaker for $10.64
billion to beef up its cancer portfolio. Pfizer edged down.
Hard-disk drive maker Seagate Technology STX.O declined
1.15% following Susquehanna's price target cut on
worse-than-expected memory pricing weakness.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.23-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE and a 1.41-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded 27 new 52-week highs and four new
lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 29 new highs and 46 new lows.