Wall St. in pre-Fed holding pattern

LONDON (CNNMoney.com) -- U.S. stock futures drifted higher early Wednesday ahead of the Federal Reserve's decision on interest rates.

Investors are widely expecting the Fed to cut rates for a second straight time when it releases its policy statement at 2:15 p.m. ET. Some are anticipating the central bank to slash rates by as much as a half-percentage point.

As always, investors will scrutinize the Fed's statement, looking to see what policymakers say about the housing market, credit crunch and economic outlook.

A bevy of economic reports are on tap ahead of the Fed statement. The Commerce Department's first take on third-quarter gross domestic product, the broadest measure of the nation's economic activity, is due at 8:30 a.m. ET. A report on construction spending and the Chicago PMI, a regional manufacturing survey, are both due after the market open.

The government is also due to release its weekly fuel inventory report. Crude prices closed at a record $93.53 a barrel on Monday, but have since pulled back and were trading below $90 a barrel in Asia on Wednesday.

Among stocks to watch, Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel Corp (Charts, Fortune 500). are in "advanced talks" with Google (Charts, Fortune 500) about selling cell phones powered by Google software, according to the Wall Street Journal.

In global trade, Asian stocks finished mixed and European stocks edged lower in morning trading.

The dollar fell to another record low against the euro as investors anticipated a Fed rate cut.