European Shares To See Cautious Start Ahead Of Fed Decision

European stocks may open on a cautious note Wednesday as investors await the U.S. Federal Reserve’s monetary policy announcement later in the day.

While the Fed is set to leave its key interest rate unchanged, focus will be on what signals the U.S. central bank might send about its likely next actions.

The updated projections may show that the policymakers expect to raise their benchmark rate once more this year.

Investors also look ahead to the U.K. inflation report as well as policy meetings of the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan, the Swiss National Bank, the Norges Bank and the Riskbank this week for direction.

Asian markets were broadly lower as Japanese trade data disappointed, and investors grappled with the challenge of rising oil prices.

The dollar steadied near six-month highs and gold was marginally lower while oil prices fell about 1 percent despite industry data showing a bigger-than-expected draw in U.S. crude stockpiles in the just-ended week.

U.S. stocks closed lower overnight as investors looked for any change in communication from the Federal Reserve.

Also, a measure of U.S. housing starts hit a three-year low in a worrying sign for the economy.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.2 percent to its lowest closing level in almost a month while the Dow eased 0.3 percent and the S&P 500 shed 0.2 percent.

European stocks ended mixed on Tuesday ahead of key central bank meetings.

The pan European STOXX 600 edged down marginally. The German DAX dropped 0.4 percent, while France’s CAC 40 and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 both ended marginally higher.

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