US equity futures were flat ahead of Wednesday's opening bell as traders looked ahead to the Federal Reserve's interest rate decision.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average futures slipped 0.1%, S&P 500 futures declined 0.2%, and Nasdaq futures were up 0.02%.

Oil prices were lower, with front-month global benchmark North Sea Brent crude down 0.4% at $76.22 per barrel and US West Texas Intermediate crude down 0.3% at $73.55 per barrel.

US trade in goods deficit, released at 8:30 am ET, widened to $122.11 billion in December from $105.5 billion in the preceding month, compared with estimates compiled by Bloomberg for a $103.5 billion gap.

The Federal Open Market Committee is scheduled to release a statement at the conclusion of its two-day policy-setting meeting at 2 pm ET. Forecasters expect no action from the Fed this time.

In other world markets, Japan's Nikkei closed 1% higher, while the Hong Kong and Chinese markets were closed for holiday. UK's FTSE 100 gained 0.3%, and Germany's DAX index rose 0.7% in Europe's early afternoon session.

In equities, shares of Corning (GLW) were up 5% pre-bell after the company reported higher Q4 core earnings and net sales. Starbucks (SBUX) stock was 3.2% higher after the company late Tuesday reported fiscal Q1 non-GAAP net income and revenue that beat analysts' estimates.

On the losing side, LendingClub (LC) shares were down 18% after the company overnight posted lower Q4 net earnings.