US STOCKS-Futures up ahead of Apple earnings, Fed meeting later this week
* Futures up: Dow 46 pts, S&P 4.5 pts, Nasdaq 12.25 pts
By Tanya Agrawal
April 27 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures were up slightly on Monday after the Nasdaq Composite and S&P 500 chalked up record high closes on Friday and ahead of Apple (NasdaqGS: AAPL - news) 's results after the close.
* Investors this week will also be closely watching the results of the two-day U.S. Federal Reserve meeting, starting Tuesday, for clues on when interest rates could be hiked.
* Strong results from tech giants pushed the Nasdaq to end at 5,092.09 on Friday, its second straight record high close. The S&P 500 rose 0.23 percent to a record high close of 2,117.69 points, just above its previous high of 2,117.39 set on March 2.
* While markets are at record highs, March-quarter earnings of S&P 500 companies are expected to dip 1.3 percent, with revenue dropping 3.5 percent as a strong dollar hurts U.S. multinationals and low oil prices weigh on energy companies, according to Thomson Reuters data.
* Applied Materials (NasdaqGS: AMAT - news) slumped 8.3 percent to $20 in premarket trading after the chipmaker's proposed $10 billion merger with Tokyo Electron was abandoned over U.S. regulatory concerns.
* Celladon (Stuttgart: 72C.SG - news) plunged 77.6 percent to $3.06 after the company said its heart failure gene therapy, Mydicar, failed to meet its main goals in an important trial.
* Time Warner Cable (Xetra: T3W1.DE - news) gained 1.1 percent to $157 on news that Charter Communications (NasdaqGS: CHTR - news) ' representatives had reached out to begin discussions on a potential merger. Comcast on Friday dropped its plans to merge with Time Warner (Xetra: AOL1.DE - news) Cable.
* Earnings expected on Monday include General Growth Properties and Hartford Financial Services.
* Data expected includes U.S. services sector numbers for April from financial firm Markit (NasdaqGS: MRKT - news) at 9:45 a.m. EDT (1345 GMT).
* World shares hit a new high, led by China, though the rally faded in Europe as investors looked ahead to central bank meetings in the United States and worried over Greece.
Futures snapshot at 7:20 EDT:
* S&P 500 e-minis were up 4.5 points, or 0.21 percent, with 107,805 contracts changing hands.
* Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 12.25 points, or 0.27 percent, on volume of 18,474 contracts.
* Dow e-minis were up 46 points, or 0.26 percent, with 18,632 contracts changing hands. (Reporting by Tanya Agrawal; Editing by Savio D'Souza)