Wall Street is set to open higher as investors wait for CPI data and a decision from the Fed.

The main stock indexes on Wall Street were expected to open higher on Monday. Investors were waiting for inflation data and the Federal Reserve's policy decision later this week to get a better idea of the U.S. economy's outlook as fears of a recession grew.

Consumer prices are expected to have gone up 7.3% on an annual basis in November, which is less than the 7.7% rise in the previous month. The core rate, which doesn't include volatile food and energy prices, is expected to have gone down from 6.3% in October to 6.1% in November.

The outcome of the two-day meeting of the U.S. central bank is expected to be announced on Wednesday. Money market participants think there is a 91% chance of a 50-basis-point rate hike to 4.25%-4.50% and a final rate of 4.96% by May 2023. (FEDWATCH)

Randy Frederick, managing director of trading and derivatives at Charles Schwab in Austin, Texas, said, "There is a concern that a possible rise in inflation could lead people to think that the Fed might tighten more quickly than it has in the past."

"The market is sure we'll get a half-point hike, but I think this (economic data) changes the outlook for what might happen in the future."

This year, the main indexes on Wall Street have gone down because people are afraid that aggressive rate hikes will cause a recession in the U.S. So far in 2022, the Nasdaq IXIC and S&P 500 SPX have fallen by 29.7% and 17.5%, respectively. This is on track to be their worst year since 2008.

At 8:27 a.m. ET, the Dow e-minis YM1! were up 81 points, or 0.24%, the S&P 500 e-minis ES1! were up 12.75 points, or 0.32%, and the Nasdaq 100 e-minis NQ1! were up 34.25 points, or 0.3%.

Most stocks that are affected by interest rates, like Apple Inc AAPL, Amazon.com Inc AMZN, and Alphabet Inc GOOG, gained between 0.1% and 0.4% before the market opened.

Qualcomm Inc.'s (QCOM) stock dropped by 2.7% after Wells Fargo changed its rating on it from "equal weight" to "underweight."