Futures flat ahead of Fed statement

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock index futures were little changed on Wednesday as investors waited to see if the Federal Reserve launches a fresh effort to boost the sluggish economy.

The Fed, ending a two-day policy meeting Wednesday, looks set to embark on what could be the first in a series of incremental steps to foster stronger growth.

The central bank is expected to try to push long-term borrowing costs lower by rebalancing its $2.8 trillion portfolio of bond holdings to weight it more heavily to longer-term securities. The Fed will issue a statement at about 2:15 p.m.

S&P 500 futures dipped 0.3 point and were in line with fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures rose 3 points, and Nasdaq 100 futures fell 4 points.

European shares were down nearly 1 percent early Wednesday after strong gains the previous day, although technology shares outperformed after Oracle's upbeat outlook.<.EU>

Oracle Corp forecast higher-than-expected current-quarter earnings and robust software sales, reassuring investors that global technology spending was holding up. Oracle shares rose 4.8 percent to $29.70 in premarket trade.

Design software maker Adobe Systems Inc's sales outlook for the fourth quarter was buoyed by new customer additions. The stock jumped 6.7 percent to $26.30 in light premarket trading.

General Motors Co's chief executive is concerned about the risk of a recession in the United States, but said pent-up demand was likely because of the need to replace aging cars in the world's biggest economy.

PepsiCo Inc is forming a council to bring together its food and beverage units to take advantage of the combined scale of the company's businesses.

U.S. stocks ended little changed on Tuesday in the lowest volume session since late August as investors waited to see if the Fed would offer more economic stimulus and if Greece made progress in talks to avoid a default.

(Reporting by Angela Moon; editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

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