Updates on market open

By Shashwat Chauhan and Twesha Dikshit

Feb 18 (Reuters) - U.S. stock indexes edged up on Wednesday as technology stocks extended gains after recent weakness, while investors awaited minutes of the central bank's latest policy meeting for insight on the interest-rate trajectory.

Wall Street has been rocked this month by worries that rapidly improving AI tools could disrupt business models, leading to selloffs in sectors from software to trucking.

Broader AI-linked and megacap technology stocks also lost ground as investors demanded stronger evidence the heavy investments in the technology were tangibly boosting revenue and profits.

"We have not really seen much of a drawdown, just a lot of daily volatility, which implies that the market is more at a crossroads and waiting for some sort of a bullish or bearish catalyst to push... (it) in a new direction," said Sam Stovall, CFRA's chief investment strategist.

Most megacap and growth stocks rose on the day, with Nvidia NVDA.O gaining 1.5% after the company said it had signed a multi-year deal to sell Meta Platforms META.O millions of its current and future AI chips.

Other megacaps also advanced. Amazon.com AMZN.O rose 1.6%, while Alphabet GOOGL.O and Microsoft MSFT.O inched up.

The S&P 500 materials .SPLRCM and energy .SPNY indexes added 0.6% and 1.1%, respectively, rebounding from the previous session's losses.

Conversely, declines in health shares .SPXHC and consumer staples .SPLRCS capped gains, with retail giant Walmart WMT.O down 1.3% ahead of its results on Thursday.

Minutes from the U.S. Federal Reserve's January policy meeting, where it held its main lending rate steady, are expected at 2 pm ET.

Traders are pricing in a chance of roughly 63% for a rate cut of at least 25 basis points at the Fed's June meeting, the first with odds above 50%, according to CME's FedWatch Tool.

The personal consumption expenditure report - the Fed's preferred inflation gauge - will be in focus later this week and is expected to provide insights into inflation and how it could impact borrowing costs.

At 09:40 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 127.97 points, or 0.26%, to 49,661.16, the S&P 500 .SPX added 16.43 points, or 0.24%, to 6,859.65, and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC gained 54.94 points, or 0.24%, to 22,633.32.

In earnings-led moves, Analog Devices' ADI.O shares rose 3.8% after the chipmaker forecast second-quarter results above Wall Street estimates.

Global Payments GPN.N gained 10.7% after the company projected annual adjusted profit above expectations.

Moderna MRNA.O climbed 5.7% after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration agreed to review its influenza vaccine, reversing an earlier decision rejecting the application.

Palo Alto Networks PANW.O dropped 9.3% after the cybersecurity company trimmed its annual profit forecast, while Cadence Design Systems CDNS.O added 6.5% after the chip-design software provider beat fourth-quarter revenue estimates.

Hard-disk drive maker Western Digital WDC.O plans to raise $3.17 billion by selling some of its stake in former unit Sandisk SNDK.O through a secondary share sale, sending Sandisk's shares lower 1.6%.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.5-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 1.23-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P 500 posted nine new 52-week highs and three new lows, while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 33 new highs and 47 new lows.