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Futures up: Dow 0.16%, S&P 500 0.29%, Nasdaq 0.38%

March 19 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures gained

some ground on Wednesday ahead of the Federal Reserve's widely

anticipated monetary policy decision.

The central bank is expected to leave its benchmark

overnight interest rate unchanged in the 4.25%-4.50% range, when

it releases its policy statement at 2 p.m. ET (1800 GMT).

Traders see about 60 basis points of easing from the Fed

this year, with the first cut seen in July, according to LSEG

data.

Focus will be on new economic projections from policymakers

that will give an idea of how they feel U.S. President Donald

Trump's trade and immigration policies will affect economic

growth, inflation and unemployment.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell is scheduled to speak later in the

day.

"Market pricing suggests some dovish tweak in the Fed

communication today, but we think Powell will want to see hard

evidence of a slowdown and will remain cautious for now," ING

analysts said.

U.S. stocks have come under severe selling pressure in the

recent weeks after a raft of economic indicators signaled a

cooling of the U.S. economy amid trade policy uncertainties.

The benchmark S&P 500 index confirmed last week it

was in correction following a 10% drop from its recent high. The

tech-heavy Nasdaq also confirmed a correction on March

6, while the blue-chip Dow is about 2% away from the correction

threshold.

By 06:02 a.m. ET, U.S. S&P 500 E-minis were up 16.25

points, or 0.29%, with 91,934 contracts changing hands, Nasdaq

100 E-minis were up 73.75 points, or 0.38%, and Dow

E-minis were up 65 points, or 0.16%.

U.S. stocks on Tuesday snapped their brief two-session

gaining streak.

The allure of safe havens continued, with gold prices

hitting a record high again on Wednesday.

Growth stocks edged higher in premarket trade, with Nvidia ( NVDA )

rising 1.2%. CEO Jensen Huang said the company was well

placed to navigate a shift in the artificial intelligence

industry, speaking at the AI chip firm's annual software

developer conference on Tuesday.

Tesla gained 2.7%, while Amazon.com ( AMZN ) and

Microsoft ( MSFT ) rose 0.2% each.