Futures Point To Broadly Lower Open For Wall Street

Early cues from the U.S. Futures Index suggest that Wall Street might open broadly down.

Asian shares finished lower, while European shares losing.

The Fed’s monetary policy announcement is likely to be in the spotlight on Wednesday along with Fed Chair Powell’s post-meeting press conference.

As of 7.40 am ET, the Dow futures were adding 9.00 points, the S&P 500 futures were down 13.50 points and the Nasdaq 100 futures were sliding 150.50 points.

The U.S. major indices finished lower on Tuesday. The Nasdaq gave back ground after jumping as much as 1.2 percent but still ended the day up 11.86 points or 0.1 percent at 13,471.57. Meanwhile, the Dow fell 127.51 points or 0.4 percent to 32,825.95 and the S&P 500 dipped 6.23 points or 0.2 percent to 3,962.71

On the economic front, the Commerce and the Housing & Urban Development department’s Housing Starts and Permits report for February will be released at 8.30 am ET. The consensus for housing starts is 1.57 million, while it was up 1.580 million in the prior month. The projection for permits is 1.75 million, compared to 1.88 million in the previous month.

The Energy Information Administration or EIA’s Petroleum Status Report for the week is scheduled at 10.30 am ET. In the prior week, the crude oil inventories were up 13.8 million barrels and the gasoline inventories were down 11.9 million barrels.

The Federal Open Market Committee or FOMC meeting announcement will be held at 2.00 pm ET. The consensus for Federal Funds Rate is up to 0.25 percent.
The Fed Chair Press Conference is scheduled at 2.30 pm ET.

Asian stocks fell in muted trading on Wednesday. Chinese and Hong Kong shares ended on a flat note.
China’s benchmark Shanghai Composite index finished marginally lower at 3,445.55, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index ended marginally higher at 29,034.12.

Japanese shares ended a choppy session little changed. The Nikkei average slid 6.76 points to 29,914.33 while the broader Topix index closed 0.13 percent higher at 1,984.03.

Australian markets ended lower to snap a three-day winning streak. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index dropped 31.90 points, or 0.47 percent, to 6,795.20, while the broader All Ordinaries index ended down 31 points, or 0.44 percent, to 7,048.

European shares are trading lower. Among the major indexes in the region, the CAC 40 Index of France is declining 15.69 points or 0.26 percent. The German DAX is losing 1.53 points or 0.01 percent, the U.K. FTSE 100 Index is down 38.17 points or 0.56 percent.

The Swiss Market Index is declining 54.10 points or 0.49 percent.

The Euro Stoxx 50 Index, which is a compilation of 50 blue chip stocks across the euro area, is down 0.31 percent.