Wall Street Poised To Open Broadly Down

(RTTNews) - Investors are awaiting the Fed's monetary policy announcement on Wednesday afternoon. Early trends on the U.S. Futures Index suggest that Wall Street might open broadly down.

President Donald Trump is on a state visit to the U.K.

Asian shares finished mixed, while European shares are trading mostly up.

As of 8.20 am ET, the Dow futures were up 29.00 points, the S&P 500 futures were declining 3.25 points and the Nasdaq 100 futures were down 7.50 points.

The U.S. major averages ended Tuesday modestly lower. The Dow dipped 125.55 points or 0.3 percent to 45,757.90, the Nasdaq slipped 14.79 points or 0.1 percent to 22,333.96 and the S&P 500 edged down 8.52 points or 0.1 percent to 6,606.76.

On the economic front, the Atlanta Fed Business Inflation Expectations for September will be released at 10.00 am ET. In the prior month, the expectations were up 2.3 percent.

The Housing Starts and Permits for August will be issued at 8.30 am ET. Consensus for Starts is for an increase of 1.370 million, while it was up 1.428 million in the previous month. Permits are expected to be up 1.370 million, while it was up 1.354 million in July.

The FOMC announcement will be at 2.00 pm ET and Fed Chair press conference will be at 2.30 pm ET.

The 4-month Treasury bills auction will be held at 11.30 am ET.

Asian stocks ended mixed on Wednesday. China's Shanghai Composite index rose 0.37 percent to 3,876.34. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index surged 1.78 percent to 26,908.39.

Japanese markets ended slightly lower. The Nikkei average ended 0.25 percent lower at 44,790.38, slipping from a record high reached in the previous session. The broader Topix index fell 0.71 percent to 3,145.83.

Australian markets ended notably lower. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 dropped 0.67 percent to 8,818.50. The broader All Ordinaries index closed 0.62 percent lower at 9,094.90.