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General Mills ( GIS ) falls after cutting annual sales forecast

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Venture Global ( VG ) up after report Trump to clear exports from

Louisiana project

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Fed rate decision due at 2 p.m. ET

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Futures up: Dow 0.08%, S&P 500 0.23%, Nasdaq 0.35%

(Updates to before markets open)

By Pranav Kashyap and Johann M Cherian

March 19 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes were

poised for a higher open on Wednesday ahead of the Federal

Reserve's widely anticipated monetary policy decision, at a time

when worries about trade policies and their impact on the

economy have rattled investors.

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 the Fed lowering borrowing costs by at least two

25-basis point cuts by December, with the first expected in

July, according to data compiled by LSEG.

Focus will be on new economic projections from policymakers

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

Trump's policies will affect economic growth, inflation and

unemployment.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell is scheduled to speak later in the

day.

The European Union will tighten steel import quotas to

reduce inflows by a further 15% from April, a senior EU official

said, in a move aimed at preventing cheap steel flooding the

European market after Washington imposed new tariffs.

Analysts have said that markets are now awaiting Trump's

next batch of tariff announcements, with reciprocal trade

barriers expected on April 1.

"Tariff policies tend to be inherently inflationary in

nature and they also tend to be a depressant on economic

growth," said Jordan Rizzuto, chief investment officer at

GammaRoad Capital Partners.

At 08:47 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were up 34 points, or

0.08%, S&P 500 E-minis were up 12.75 points, or 0.23%,

and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 68.5 points, or 0.35%.

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.

Multiple companies have also lowered their annual forecasts,

the latest being General Mills ( GIS ). The Pillsbury owner

lowered its annual sales outlook, sending its shares down 4.3%

in premarket trading.

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.

The allure of safe havens continued, with gold prices

touching a record high again on Wednesday.

Growth stocks edged higher, with Nvidia ( NVDA ) rising

1.3%. 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 2.9%, while Amazon.com ( AMZN ) and

Microsoft ( MSFT ) rose 0.5% and 0.2%, respectively.

Venture Global ( VG ) rose 6.7% after a report said the

Trump administration is set to grant the LNG producer

conditional approval to export natural gas from a proposed

Louisiana facility.