Investing.com – Wall Street opened lower on Wednesday ahead of the Federal Reserve's policy decision and the publication of its latest economic forecasts.
The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) is expected to keep rates unchanged when it announces the results of its two-meeting at 2:00 PM ET (18:00 GMT). The biggest focus will be any changes to the central bank's monetary policy stance, notably its 'dot-plot' of interest rate expectations and its new growth forecasts
"It's a Fed day and investors will scrutinize its communiqué with two key factors — the duration of patience and the overall outlook on the economy," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Spartan Capital Securities in New York, referring to Chairman Jerome Powell's assurance that the Fed would wait and see before deciding whether to hike rates further after raising them four times last year.
"We believe the Fed will not surprise the markets but add another caveat, a trade deal, to data-dependence and patience."
The Dow lost 132 points or 0.5% by 9:46 AM ET (13:46 GMT) while the S&P 500 lost 9 points or 0.3% and tech-heavy Nasdaq composite slipped 9 points or 0.1%.
General Mills (NYSE:GIS) was among the top gainers after the morning bell, rising 3.5% after eking out a 1% gain in organic sales growth and updating its earnings forecast. Google parent company Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) inched up 0.1%, subdued after news that the European Union hit the company with a $1.7 billion antitrust fine for blocking ad rivals.
Elsewhere, FedEx (NYSE:FDX) slumped 6.3% after its earnings missed forecasts, while Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) fell 0.6% and AT&T (NYSE:T) dipped 0.8%. UnitedHealth (NYSE:UNH) lost 1.3% as Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) slipped 1% and Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT) was down 1.2%.
In commodities, gold futures rose 0.1% to $1,307.15 a troy ounce while crude oil was down 0.3% at $59.09 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, gained 0.1% to 95.907.
-Reuters contributed to this report.