Wall Street’s main indexes were poised for a higher open on Wednesday ahead of the Federal Reserve’s widely anticipated monetary policy decision, at a time when worries about trade policies and their impact on the economy have rattled investors.
The central bank is expected to leave its benchmark overnight interest rate unchanged in the 4.25%-4.50% range, when it releases its policy statement at 2 p.m. ET (1800 GMT).
Traders see the Fed lowering borrowing costs by at least two 25-basis point cuts by December, with the first expected in July, according to data compiled by LSEG.
Focus will be on new economic projections from policymakers that will give an idea of how they feel U.S. President Donald Trump’s policies will affect economic growth, inflation and unemployment.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell is scheduled to speak later in the day.
The European Union will tighten steel import quotas to reduce inflows by a further 15% from April, a senior EU official said, in a move aimed at preventing cheap steel flooding the European market after Washington imposed new tariffs.
Analysts have said that markets are now awaiting Trump’s next batch of tariff announcements, with reciprocal trade barriers expected on April 1.
"Tariff policies tend to be inherently inflationary in nature and they also tend to be a depressant on economic growth," said Jordan Rizzuto, chief investment officer at GammaRoad Capital Partners.
At 08:47 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were up 34 points, or 0.08%, S&P 500 E-minis were up 12.75 points, or 0.23%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 68.5 points, or 0.35%.
U.S. stocks have come under severe selling pressure in the recent weeks after a raft of economic indicators signaled a cooling of the U.S. economy amid trade policy uncertainties.
Multiple companies have also lowered their annual forecasts, the latest being General Mills (NYSE:GIS). The Pillsbury owner lowered its annual sales outlook, sending its shares down 4.3% in premarket trading.
The benchmark S&P 500 index confirmed last week it was in correction following a 10% drop from its recent high. The tech-heavy Nasdaq also confirmed a correction on March 6, while the blue-chip Dow is about 2% away from the correction threshold.
The allure of safe havens continued, with gold prices touching a record high again on Wednesday. [GOL/]
Growth stocks edged higher, with Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) rising 1.3%. CEO Jensen Huang said the company was well placed to navigate a shift in the artificial intelligence industry, speaking at the AI chip firm’s annual software developer conference on Tuesday.
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) gained 2.9%, while Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) rose 0.5% and 0.2%, respectively.
Venture Global rose 6.7% after a report said the Trump administration is set to grant the LNG producer conditional approval to export natural gas from a proposed Louisiana facility.