US pre-open: Futures in the red following Fed interest rate decision

Wall Street futures were in the red ahead of the bell on Thursday as market participants continued to digest the Federal Reserve's move to raise interest rates by half a point.

As of 1240 BST, Dow Jones futures were down 0.39%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures had the indices opening 0.55% and 0.72% lower, respectively.

The Dow Jones closed 932.27 points higher on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve confirmed the first 50-basis point rate hike in more than two decades.

Futures were in the red prior to the open after stocks rose for a third straight session when the US central bank hiked its benchmark interest rate by 50 basis points and said it would start cutting its balance sheet in June.

However, investor sentiment, which got a boost during chairman Jerome Powell's news conference when he stated the Fed was "not actively considering" a larger 75 basis point rate hike, became somewhat more cautious ahead of the bell on Thursday as traders continued to assess the Fed's ability to slow inflation without triggering a recession.

On the macro front, the Labor Department's weekly jobless claims report will be published at 1330 BST.

In the corporate space, Shell reported its best quarterly profit since 2008 ahead of the open amid soaring commodity prices following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Still to come, DoorDash, Shake Shack and Zillow will report their latest quarterly earnings figures after the close of trading.