European Shares Set For Muted Open Ahead Of Fed Decision

(RTTNews) - European stocks are seen opening slightly lower on Wednesday in the lead up to the Federal Reserve's highly anticipated monetary policy announcement later in the day.

While the Fed is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged, the central bank's accompanying statement and economic projections could have a significant impact on the outlook for rates.

After recent CPI and producer price data flagged concerns of sticky inflation, traders currently price in less than 50 percent chance of a rate cut in June.

Meanwhile, U.K. inflation figures are awaited later in the day ahead of Thursday's BOE meeting.

Asian stocks traded mostly higher in cautious trade, with Japanese markets closed for a holiday.

Seoul stocks outperformed, with the Kospi average climbing more than 1 percent after the Nikkei reported that NVIDIA Corporation was considering using Samsung's high bandwidth memory chips in its artificial intelligence processors.

The dollar rose before the Fed meeting while gold held largely steady. Oil prices dipped slightly after two days of gains on supply concerns and signs of stronger demand from the U.S. and China.

The latest API report revealed a small decline in crude oil stocks and gasoline inventories, but a small build in distillate stocks.

U.S. stocks reversed initial losses to end higher overnight as Treasury yields dipped broadly and Nvidia shares edged up for the second day after the company unveiled its new generation of artificial intelligence chips.

In economic releases, February housing starts and building permits data beat expectations.

The Dow jumped 0.8 percent, the S&P 500 gained 0.6 percent to mark a record close and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite closed up 0.4 percent.

European stocks closed a tad higher on Tuesday as investors looked ahead to the Fed and BOE policy meetings.

The pan European STOXX 600 advanced 0.3 percent. The German DAX edged up 0.3 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 added 0.2 percent and France's CAC 40 climbed 0.7 percent.