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PRE-FED DOLDRUMS

Wall Street shuffled out of the starting gate on Wednesday, as mounting geopolitical tensions, as-expected jobless claims and soft housing data all took a back seat to the Federal Reserve's rate decision at 2 p.m. ET.

All three major U.S. stock indexes are showing a marked lack of conviction, inching tentatively higher in the first few minutes of trading.

Big banks .SPXBK are a clear outperformer jumping over 1%.

Powell & Co are expected to emerge from their two-day monetary meeting to announce the Fed is letting its key interest rate stand in the 4.25% to 4.50% range. The central bank is also due to release its updated Summary of Economic Projections, which will provide insight regarding the Fed's rate cuts through the end of this year and beyond.

Financial markets are all but certain we won't see a rate cut today, pricing in the first cut happening in September.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei rejected President Donald Trump's call for unconditional surrender as Israel and Iran continue to bombard each other, turning up the heat on simmering geopolitical tensions.

In company news, Japan's Nippon Steel 5401.T closed on its $14.9 billion acquisition of U.S. Steel X.N, and Texas Instruments TXN.O announced it would invest more than $60 billion in United States chip manufacturing.

In economic news, jobless claims edged lower as expected, while housing starts, building permits and mortgage data pointed to softness in the housing market.

The Philadelphia SE Housing index .HGX is last up 0.3%.

Here's where things stood as of 0944 EDT:

(Stephen Culp)

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