US pre-open: Wall Street set for slightly higher start

Futures markets were pointing to a higher start for stocks on Wall Street on Wednesday, although investors were not expected to push their luck ahead of the Federal Reserve's policy announcement later in the day, especially given the proximity of the S&P 500's and Dow Imdustrials all-time highs.

The Federal Open Market Committtee's policy announcement was scheduled for 1900 BST with Fed chairman Jerome Powell's press conference set to follow half an hour later.

Investors were looking for Powell to validate their expectations for up to three interest rate cuts over the remainder of 2019, but while policymakers on the Federal Open Market Committee were widely-expected to stay put on rates, according to some analysts there was room for disappointment.

As of 1137 BST, futures for the Dow Jones Industrials were indicating a 21.0 point gain to 26,525.0 at the opening bell, with the S&P 500 set to add 1.75 points to 2,928.0 and the Nasdaq-100 seen higher by 7.25 points to 7,680.75.

Muddying the waters a tad ahead of the FOMC's decision, overnight Bloomberg had reported that in February the White House had studied the practicalities around a possible demotion of Powell to the status of simply one more governor on the Fed board.

Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at Oanda, told clients: "The central bank is now under considerable pressure [...]

"These tactics didn't work too well for the President last year, with the Fed raising interest rates four times despite huge pressure being publicly applied. Will they do the same again and reassert their independence or will the memory of the previous policy mistake force their hand, calling into question how much influence the President is having on their judgement and decision making. One thing is clear, the current relationship is not healthy and is likely to lead to more bad policy decisions and questions around its independence."

No major economic data releases were scheduled for Wednesday.

In geopolitical news, the White House was reportedly mulling three different options for sanctioning Turkey for its decision to go aahead and purchase Russia's S-400 missile defence system.

Apple was front and centre in the day's headlines, after a report in Nikkei that the smartphone manufacturer was studying shifting between 15-30% of its output from China to Southeast Asia as part of a fundamental restructuring of its supply chain.

Elsewhere on the corporate front, stock in Southwest Airlines was little changed even after the airline lifted its second quarter unit revenue guidance, although it now expected its 737 Max jets to be idled for longer.

Boeing stock was ahead by roughly half a percentage point after the Wall Street Journal said efforts to get its 737 back in the air were being hampered by doubts about whether the average pilot would have sufficient strength to turn a manual crank in the midst of an emergency.