Wall Street is set to edge up on Wednesday, as companies continue to beat forecasts with their earnings, and with investors awaiting a statement from the Federal Reserve.

* At 5 a.m. ET, futures for the Dow Jones, S&P 500 and Nasdaq were up 0.3 to 0.4 percent.

* The FTSEurofirst 300 <.FTEU3> index of leading European shares was up 0.8 percent at 1,153.06 points.

* Shares in Vodafone gained 2.3 percent as traders cite a bullish read-across from figures on Tuesday from the British firm's U.S. wireless joint venture with Verizon .

* The Federal Reserve is expected to nod to an improving U.S. economic outlook even as it reaffirms a plan to buy $600 billion in government debt to help speed recovery.

* New home sales for December will be watched for signs of life in the beaten-up sector. They were expected to have risen to 300,000 from 290,000 the month before, a Reuters poll found.

* Profit at ConocoPhillips , the third-largest U.S. oil company, is likely to rise when it spells out its quarterly performance, helped by cost cutting, high crude oil prices, and asset sales. Others in the sector -- Occidental , Hess and Valero -- are also set to report higher profit.

* Boeing and Starbucks are among other companies set to report.

* U.S. President Barack Obama called on lawmakers on Tuesday to work with him to cut the corporate tax rate, but his pitch to offset lost revenues by slashing tax breaks cherished by companies could stall the effort.

* U.S. stocks erased losses in a late flurry of buying to end little changed on Tuesday as overall optimism about earnings offset disappointing results from blue chips 3M and Johnson & Johnson .

* About 70 percent of S&P companies so far have beaten estimates, but worries about inflation cutting into profits have caused investors to jump on shares of companies that only produce spectacular results.

* The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> finished down 0.03 percent; the Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> was up 0.03 percent; the Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> was up 0.06 percent.

* Yahoo Inc shares dipped 1.3 percent after the bell as it reported results.

* Juniper Networks Inc shares fell 5 percent after the bell following results.

(Reporting by Brian Gorman; Editing by Hans Peters)

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