By Alexandra Gibbs, CNBC–
U.S. stock index futures came under slight pressure ahead of Wednesday’s open, as investors waited for an all-important meeting by the U.S. Federal Reserve.
Around 5:30 a.m. ET, Dow futures slipped 26 points, indicating a drop of 0.27 points at the open. The Nasdaq and the S&P 500 futures also indicated a flat to negative open for their respective markets.
In the previous trading session, Wall Street finished higher, with the Dow Jones industrial average rising more than 100 points by the close.
Wednesday will see the conclusion of a two-day meeting by the Fed, where the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) will release its latest interest rate decision and give comments on the economy at 2 p.m. ET.
The meeting will be followed by a news conference, which will be headed up for the first time by the newly-appointed Fed Chair Jerome Powell. The event is expected to see the central bank raises interest rates for the first time in 2018, with investors expecting an increase of 25 basis points.
Market watchers will also be paying close attention to see if the central bank comments on key topics such as inflation, the state of the U.S. economy, and politics. While trade is a big subject shaking up markets as of late, the Fed may not choose to touch upon the topic of potential trade wars, in order to keep markets at bay.
Looking to the corporate space, investors will be paying close attention to social media stocks after reports emerged alleging that Cambridge Analytica, an analytics company, had gathered data from 50 million Facebook profiles without the permission of its users.
Speaking of corporate news, Tencent, General Mills, Winnebago, Five Below, and Scholasticare all publishing their latest earnings reports.
In data, mortgage applications are due out at 7 a.m. ET, followed by the current account at 8:30 a.m. ET and existing home sales at 10 a.m. ET.
Overseas, stocks in the European and Asian region fell into the red on Wednesday.
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