US stock futures are pointing slightly higher this morning, with key benchmarks up around 0.1 to 0.2 percent as investors look ahead to a crucial Federal Reserve meeting. The latest inflation scorecard, the Fed’s preferred PCE index, is running at 2.8 percent a year, close to its 2 percent goal but not quite there, which keeps the debate alive over when borrowing costs might finally be cut. At the same time, consumer spending is still growing 0.3 percent a month, suggesting the economy has not cooled too much. The big question is whether this mix of steady spending and only slowly easing inflation is enough for the Fed to start lowering rates soon, a call that will matter most for rate sensitive areas such as growth stocks, smaller companies and real-estate-linked investments.