Wall Street futures rise ahead of US Federal Reserve meeting

Futures on major US stock indexes are rising by more than 1% on Wednesday in anticipation of the outcome of the meeting of the US Federal Reserve System.

Thus, futures for the Dow Jones industrial index increased to 34,564 points, futures for the NASDAQ index of high–tech companies – to 1,4446.25 points, and futures for the S&P 500 broad market index – to 4,415 points.

A two-day meeting of the US regulator will end today, and investors expect that the Fed will not surprise the markets with a sharp tightening of monetary policy and will move to raising the discount interest rate only in March. According to polls, only about 5% of analysts do not rule out the possibility of raising the rate already following the results of the current meeting.

After the announcement of the results of the meeting, a speech by Fed Chairman Jerome Powell will take place. Market participants expect that it can give «dovish» signals in the light of increasing political tensions between Russia, Ukraine and NATO.