Australian shares to start higher after gains on Wall Street

The news: The Australian sharemarket is poised to start higher after overnight gains on Wall Street, ahead of the conclusion of the Federal Reserve’s policy meeting.

The numbers: The Dow Jones index ended 0.83% higher, the broader S&P 500 gained 0.54% while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 0.39%. In the local market, ASX 200 futures were up 13 points or 0.17% at 7715 points at 7:00am AEDT on Wednesday.

The context: US stocks closed higher amid ongoing bullishness about the economy’s direction even as investors await clues on the central bank’s interest rate policy.

The Fed will provide a policy update on Thursday AEDT, and chair Jerome Powell is expected to remind the market that he is cautious about inflation as the central bank updates its economic growth projections. Robust inflation data has pulled back bets for the first US rate cut in June to about 59% from about 69% at the start of last week, according to the CME FedWatch Tool.