The Fed’s monetary policy announcement, as well as earnings, might be the major highlight on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL), Advance Micro Devices (AMD), and Microsoft (MSFT) are among the companies releasing their quarterly results after the close of today’s trading.<\/p>\n
Asian shares finished broadly up, while European shares are trading positive.
Initial cues from the U.S. Futures Index suggest that Wall Street might open mostly lower. <\/p>\n
As of 7.45 am ET, the Dow futures were down 78.00 points, the S&P 500 futures were adding 0.25 points and the Nasdaq 100 futures were sliding 21.25 points.<\/p>\n
The major U.S. Indices finished mixed on Tuesday. The tech-heavy Nasdaq posted a modest loss, slipping 48.56 points or 0.3 percent to 14,090.22, while the Dow and the S&P 500 closed nearly flat. The Dow inched up 3.36 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 33,984.93 and the S&P 500 edged down 0.90 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 4,186.72.<\/p>\n
On the economic front, Census Bureau’s International Trade in Goods (Advance) for March will be issued at 8.30 am ET. The consensus is for a deficit of $87.5 billion, while it was down $86.7 billion in the prior month. <\/p>\n
Retail Inventories (Advance) for March will be published at 8.30 am ET. In the prior month, the inventories were up 0.0 percent.<\/p>\n
State Street Investor Confidence Index for April will be released at 10.00 am ET. In the prior month, the Index was at 93.9. <\/p>\n
The Energy Information Administration or EIA’s Petroleum Status report at 10.30 am ET. Crude Oil Inventories were up 0.6 million barrels, while Gasoline Inventories were up 0.1 million barrels.<\/p>\n
Survey of Business Uncertainty for April will be released at 11.00 am ET. In the prior month, sales growth were up 4.41 percent, while Employment growth grew 5.15 percent. <\/p>\n
The FOMC meeting announcement is scheduled at 2.00 pm ET. The Fed Chair Press Conference will be at 2.30 pm ET. <\/p>\n
Asian stocks rose broadly on Wednesday. Chinese stocks posted modest gains, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite index ending up 14.46 points, or 0.42 percent, at 3,457.07. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rose 129.80 points, or 0.45 percent, to 29,071.34.<\/p>\n
Japanese shares ended slightly higher. The Nikkei average edged up 62.08 points, or 0.21 percent, to 29,053.97, while the broader Topix index closed 0.29 percent higher at 1,909.06.<\/p>\n