Stocks on Wall Street were higher at midday as the Federal Open Markets Committee begins its two-day meeting. The announcement of a rate hike tomorrow is widely viewed as a foregone conclusion, but hints about the pace of future tightening will be the big determinant of how the Fed decision and accompanying statement may move the markets. With the members of the Fed’s rate setting group convening, inflation data was a bit firmer than expected this morning, according to new data on producer prices. ECONOMIC EVENTS: In the U.S., the headline Producer Prices Index rose 0.4% in November, with the core PPI rate up 0.3% from the prior month, both of which were a little hotter than expected. COMPANY NEWS: Comcast (CMCSA), whose shares are up about 2% near midday, told Reuters last night that it has abandoned its bid for most of the assets of 21st Century Fox (FOXA). After that report, CNBC said this morning that Disney (DIS) and Fox are expected to announce a deal on Thursday. According to CNBC’s David Faber, Fox believes that any assets not sold to Disney as part of any agreement will be worth at least $10 per share. Faber also noted that Fox’s assets going to Disney were valued at roughly $28 per share earlier in the negotiations, and that the price has likely gone higher from there… Meanwhile, 3M (MMM) shares were fractionally lower after the company gave an updated FY17 outlook and provided its initial FY18 guidance ahead of its annual financial meeting. The company said it is tracking towards the top half of its FY17 earnings per share range of $9.00-$9.10 and that it expects FY18 GAAP EPS of $9.60-$10.00… Additionally, shares of Boeing (BA) rose nearly 3% after its board authorized a 20% increase to its quarterly dividend and replaced the existing share repurchase program with a new $18B authorization. MAJOR MOVERS: Among the noteworthy gainers was GlycoMimetics (GLYC), which rose 25% after it reported improvements in median overall survival in its Phase 1/2 trial of acute myeloid leukemia treatment GMI-1271. Also higher was Seagate (STX), which gained 5% after it announced a restructuring plan, under which the company will cut roughly 500 jobs. Among the notable losers was Oasis Petroleum (OAS), which fell 15% and was downgraded to Hold at SunTrust after the company’s near $1B investment in Delaware Basin assets. Also lower after reporting quarterly results was Casey’s General Stores (CASY), which fell 8%. INDEXES: Near midday, the Dow was up 139.50, or 0.57%, to 24,525.53, the Nasdaq was up 9.09, or 0.13%, to 6,884.17, and the S&P 500 was up 8.26, or 0.31%, to 2,668.25.