By Bansari Mayur Kamdar and Shashwat Chauhan
(Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures were range bound on Wednesday as investors awaited the conclusion of the Federal Reserve's meeting where it is widely expected to keep interest rates unchanged and provide cues on its monetary policy trajectory.
U.S. central bankers will conclude their two-day meeting later in the day. Focus will be on the Fed's policy statement, updated economic projections and Chair Jerome Powell's press conference.
Wall Street rallied to all-time highs this month, supported by optimism around artificial intelligence, but it has retreated a little in recent weeks after reports showing robust inflation dampened hopes of the Fed kicking off its rate-easing cycle.
Traders pulled back bets for a June rate cut to 64% from 71% at the start of last week, according to CME FedWatch data.
"Given the recent uptick in inflation, strong economic growth, healthy jobs market and robust earnings, we could see some Fed members plot fewer rate cuts for the year ... could tilt the median forecast to two rate cuts this year from three plotted in December," said Ipek Ozkardeskaya, a senior market analyst at Swissquote Bank.
At 7:00 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 25 points, or 0.06%, S&P 500 e-minis were down 1.25 points, or 0.02%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 18 points, or 0.1%.
Most megacap growth stocks struggled for direction in premarket trading, while Tesla gained 0.5% after confirming to Reuters it will raise the price of China-produced Model Y vehicles by 5,000 yuan ($694.55) from April 1.
Nvidia, the chipmaker at the center of Wall Street's AI euphoria, dipped 0.4% after closing higher in the previous session on revealing pricing and shipment plans for its hotly anticipated Blackwell B200 chip.
The Biden administration said it is awarding Intel nearly $20 billion in grants and loans, lifting shares of the chipmaker up 3.7%.
Nasdaq's shares fell 3.3% after the exchange operator said Borse Dubai will sell shares worth $1.6 billion in the company, reducing its stake to 10.8% from 15.5%.
Wells Fargo shed 1.2% after Citigroup downgraded its rating on the lender to "neutral" from "buy".
Boeing fell 2.3% after CFO Brian West said the planemaker has decided to keep 737 jet production below 38 per month.
Super Micro Computer dropped 2.1% after the company, which makes AI-optimized servers with Nvidia's chips, announced the pricing of its public offering of 2 million shares.
PDD Holdings jumped 12.4% after the e-commerce company beat Wall Street estimates for fourth-quarter revenue.
(Reporting by Bansari Mayur Kamdar and Shashwat Chauhan in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta and Maju Samuel)
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