NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Investors Tuesday await signs from the Federal Reserve about the pace of future interest rates as policy makers at the central bank start a two-day meeting.

U.S. stock futures were up slightly, indicating a modestly higher opening for stocks.

While the Fed Open Market Committee starts its meeting Tuesday, it's not expected to release its statement or interest rate decision until around 2:15 p.m. ET Wednesday. Another quarter-percentage point interest rate hike is widely expected; what investors will be waiting to see is comments in the statement that could indicate more aggressive hikes are ahead.

Major markets in Asia closed mixed Tuesday, while major European markets where higher in early trading.

Shares of Dow component Walt Disney Co. (Research) were higher in European trading following a stronger than forecast earnings report after the market close Monday.

U.S. stocks ended a difficult month on an up note Monday.

Oil prices fell in early trading Tuesday, after closing higher Monday on production level concerns following Sunday's OPEC meeting.

The March light crude contract lost 52 cents to $47.68 a barrel in electronic trading, while Brent crude fell 42 cents to $45.50.

Bond prices were little changed, leaving the yield on the 10-year treasury at 4.13 percent in early trading Tuesday. The dollar edged higher against the euro and the yen.

Economic reports due Monday include the first reading on the state of manufacturing in January from a survey of supply managers. The Institute of Supply Management index is expected to fall to 57.0 from 57.3 in December, according to economists surveyed by Briefing.com.

Any reading above 50 indicates growth in manufacturing.

The government report on December construction spending is also due, with economists forecasting a 0.5 percent gain, compared with a 0.4 percent decline in November.

In corporate news, major automakers are set to report January sales numbers Tuesday, and widely followed Internet search engine Google (Research) is set to report quarterly earnings following the market close Tuesday. Google also gets new competition as Microsoft (Research) rolls out its search engine Tuesday.

The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that executives from Federated Department Stores (Research) met last week with executives from May Department Stores (Research) to discuss a possible purchase. But the paper reported a deal does not appear imminent, with executives differing over the price May would accept for a takeover.

An article in an academic journal Tuesday by three researchers from Hewlett-Packard (Research) says a new technology being pioneered by the company has proven itself far faster than the transistor, a fundamental building block of current computers.