US pre-open: Stocks seen steady ahead of Fed announcement
By Michele Maatouk
Date: Wednesday 20 Mar 2019
(Sharecast News) - US stock futures pointed to a broadly flat open on Wall Street on Wednesday as investors kept their powder dry ahead of the latest policy announcement from the Federal Reserve.
At 1215 GMT , Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures were all flat.
With the US central bank widely expected to keep interest rates unchanged, investors will be focusing on the Fed's policy statement.
Neil Wilson, chief market analyst at Markets.com, said: "We should expect the Fed to reiterate its patient approach to raising rates. The problem for markets is that the dovishness is largely expected so the bar for a 'dovish surprise' from Powell is rather high.
"All the focus will be on the fresh set of projection materials and it's this that will matter for markets.
"We should expect a shift down in the dots to underscore the more dovish stance. The last dot plot in December was a lot more hawkish than the current market expectations suggest and it would seem likely that the Fed will fall into line with the market.
"The median dot in Dec was brought down to 2.9%, still signifying a couple of hikes in 2019. Even one now looks unlikely and so we should expect the median dot to come down to around 2.7%.
"However, we should remember, the January meeting minutes underscored that several FOMC members still think there will more hikes in 2019. The key message from the January minutes was this: "Several other participants indicated that, if the economy evolved as they expected, they would view it as appropriate to raise the target range for the federal funds rate later this year'."
In corporate news, FedEx shares were down 7% in pre-market trade after the company cut its profit forecast for this year for the second time in three months late on Tuesday and posted weaker-than-expected third-quarter results.
Pfizer was likely to be in focus after the pharmaceutical group said it has bought a 15% stake in Vivet Therapeutics and now has an exclusive option to fully buy the privately-held French gene therapy company.
Google parent Alphabet could also be in the spotlight after the EU slapped Google with a €1.5n fine for blocking rival online search advertisers.
The Fed rate announcement and policy statement are at 1800 GMT.
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