Wall Street Aims To Open Moderately Up

The Federal Reserve’s monetary policy announcement and its impact on the outlook for interest rates might get attention on Wednesday.

In the Asian trading session, gold jumped more than 1 percent toward $4,000 an ounce. The dollar rose from a one-week low while oil prices were little changed.

U.S. President Donald Trump said he is looking forward to a great meeting with Chinese President Xi. The leaders may discuss a proposed trade framework.

Early signs from the U.S. Futures Index suggest that Wall Street might open positive.

As of 8.20 am ET, the Dow futures were gaining 56.00 points, the S&P 500 futures were adding 16.00 points and the Nasdaq 100 futures were up 105.25 points.

The U.S. major averages closed in positive territory on Tuesday. The Nasdaq advanced 190.04 points or 0.8 percent to 23,827.49, the Dow climbed 161.78 points or 0.3 percent to 47,706.37 and the S&P 500 rose 15.73 points or 0.2 percent to 6,890.89.

On the economic front, the International Trade in Goods (Advance) for September will be released at 8.30 am ET. The consensus is for a deficit of $90 billion, compared to deficit of $85.5 billion in the prior month.

The Pending Home Sales Index for September is scheduled at 10.00 am ET. The consensus is for an increase of 1 %, while it was up 4.0 percent in the prior month.

The Energy Information Administration or EIA’s Petroleum Status Report for the week is expected at 10.30 am ET. In the prior week, the crude oil inventories were down 1.0 million barrels and the gasoline inventories were down 2.1 million barrels.

Two-year Floating Rate Note or FRN auction will be held at 11.30 am ET.

The Federal Open Market Committee or FOMC announcement is scheduled at 2.00 pm ET. The consensus is for a rate cut of 25 basis points, while it was minus 25 bp in the prior period.

FOMC Chair press conference will be held at 2.30 pm ET.

Asian stocks rose broadly on Wednesday. China’s Shanghai Composite index rose 0.70 percent to 4,016.33. Hong Kong markets were closed for a public holiday.

Japanese markets hit new record highs. The Nikkei average closed up 2.17 percent at 51,307.65. The broader Topix index slipped 0.23 percent, to 3,278.24.

Australian markets ended sharply lower. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.96 percent to 8,926.20. The broader All Ordinaries index settled 0.83 percent lower at 9,218.80.

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