NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - U.S. stocks were set to open higher Monday, helped by lower oil prices, as investors await the start of the two-day meeting of the Federal Reserve

U.S. stock futures were slightly higher.

The central bank begins its two-day monetary policy meeting Monday, the first to be chaired by new Fed chief Ben Bernanke. Market speculation already heavily favors at least a quarter-percentage point rate hike at the meeting. (Full story). Therefore, investors will more likely focus on what Tuesday's accompanying statement indicates about future rate hikes.

Oil prices pulled back from previous seven-week highs to below $64 on barrel, buoyed by the news that Nigerian militants freed three foreign oil workers held hostage for five weeks. U.S. light crude for May delivery slipped 50 cents to $63.76 a barrel in electronic trading, while London Brent crude fell 62 cents to $62.89 a barrel.

Treasury prices were lower, raising the yield on the benchmark 10-year note to 4.68 percent from 4.66 percent late Friday. The dollar was lower against the yen and the euro.

Major markets in Asia ended higher while Europe was mostly lower in early Monday trade.

In corporate news, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday that troubled automaker General Motors (Research) is working to rectify accounting mistakes and could soon file its annual report with the SEC. Separately, the paper also said the company is continuing talks over the possible sale of a stake in General Motors Acceptance Corp. (GMAC), the company's auto-financing, mortgage and insurance unit.

Microsoft (Research) appealed Monday against a South Korean ruling that it should unbundle its media player and messaging service from its Windows software.

Cable operator Cablevision Systems (Research) said Monday it plans to introduce a video recording service as early as this year that aims to replace the living room digital video recorders.

For a more detailed look at the markets before the open, click here.

On the economic docket, later this week investors will get a heavy dose of updates beginning with the March consumer confidence report on Tuesday, and the March Chicago PMI report and February factory orders both due Friday.