Stock futures are shifting between narrow gains and losses though most participants are sidelined ahead of the afternoon announcement from the Federal Reserve, which will be wrapping up a two-day policy meeting.

The Fed will make its announcement at 2:15 p.m. ET. While there's no rate change expected, the central bank's statement will be scrutinized for hints as to the timing of tighter interest rates and the future of its $300 billion program of buying long-term government bonds to provide credit flow.

Stock trading showed little immediate impact from a report showing the June U.S. trade deficit widened to $27 billion. Imports rose for the first time in 11 months on stronger oil imports.

Tech shares should get a boost from more improving results in the sector.

Applied Materials (AMAT ) is firmer, trading in the upper end of its extended-hours range after mostly upbeat earnings and guidance out late Tuesday.

JA Solar (JASO ) is an active-volume decliner after it reports Q2 revs of $88 mln, well ahead of the analyst mean of $78 mln on Thomson Reuters but down from $181.1 mln in the year ago Q2. GAAP loss was $0.18 per ADS, vs. a year ago loss of $0.01. The Street view was a loss of $0.06 per share, but this may not be comparable.

Looking forward, the company said it is seeing significant signs of market improvement in both end-market demand and financing.

Citi (C ) is a morning volume leader, gaining 2%. The company has reportedly received regulatory approval to act as a market maker in China's interbank bond market, the second foreign lender to get the go-ahead as China opens up its bond market, according to Reuters.

Separately, two buyout funds may submit bids for Bellsystem24, a Japanese telemarketer owned by Citi. A potential transaction is expected to fetch as much as $1.5 billion.

Retail earnings dominated the headlines this morning.

Macy's (M ) reports Q2 earnings, ex charges, of $0.20 per share, a nickel better than the analyst mean on Thomson Reuters. Sales were $5.16 bln, in line to slightly below the Street view of $5.18 bln.

The company expects same-store sales in the second half of fiscal 2009 to be in the range of down 5 percent to 6 percent. This would result in full-year 2009 same-store sales to be down between 7 percent and 7.5 percent – within the original guidance for fiscal 2009 same-store sales to be down between 6 percent and 8 percent.