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The Fed's policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee said in a statement after a two-day meeting it intends to complete its $600 billion bond buying program in June as scheduled.

Despite some headwinds, the U.S. central bank indicated that it believed the economic recovery was proceeding at a moderate pace, with little risk an inflationary psychology would take hold.

"Inflation has picked up in recent months, but longer-term inflation expectations have remained stable and measures of underlying inflation are still subdued," it said.

The statement is expected to be overshadowed within hours by a question and answer session Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke will hold with journalists. The briefing, which is set for 2:15 p.m. (1815 GMT), marks the first regularly scheduled news conference by a Fed chairman in the central bank's 97-year history.

The Fed cut interest rates to near zero in December 2008 and bought close to $1.4 trillion in longer-term securities to help spur a recovery from the economy's deep recession.

When the recovery stumbled last year, it launched a new program to buy an additional $600 billion in government bonds.

The bond-buying plan met withering criticism domestically and internationally. Even some Fed officials have worried it would stoke inflation.

The Fed's unprecedented easy money policies have been accused of pushing up the cost of oil and other commodities. Top Fed officials have defended their actions by saying surging commodity costs primarily reflect rapid growth in emerging markets and that a healthy U.S. economy has global benefits.

The Fed lags other major central banks, including the European Central Bank, that have already moved to raise interest rates or are poised to do so.

This out-of-step U.S. monetary policy has undercut the dollar, which slid to a three-year low against major currencies on Wednesday. Analysts expect the greenback to remain under pressure.

Several Fed officials have expressed concern the central bank risks falling behind the curve in responding to price pressures if it does not reverse its ultra-loose stance soon.

Although headline inflation has shot higher since the start of the year, core price indexes closely monitored by the Fed are still well below levels that would normally cause alarm.

At the same time, higher commodity costs have weighed on consumer spending and the unemployment rate is still at a lofty 8.8 percent.

Analysts polled by Reuters expect a report on Thursday to show the economy advanced at a subdued 2 percent annual rate in the first quarter, if not slower. It expanded at a solid 3.1 percent pace in the final three months of last year.

The world's largest aerospace and defense company said on Wednesday its first-quarter profit came to $586 million, or 78 cents per share, compared with $519 million, or 70 cents per share, a year earlier when the company took a 20 cents-per-share charge related to health care legislation.

Analysts on average expected Boeing to report a first-quarter profit of 70 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Revenue slipped 2 percent to $14.9 billion.

Boeing, which competes with EADS unit Airbus, splits its business almost evenly between commercial airplanes and defense products.

Boeing Commercial Airplanes first-quarter revenue decreased by 5 percent to $7.1 billion on planned lower 777 deliveries.

Boeing repeated that first delivery for the long-delayed 787 Dreamliner was on track for the third quarter.

Boeing Defense, Space & Security's first-quarter revenue was $7.6 billion, in line with the year-ago quarter.

Its shares were up 55 cents at $76.10 in premarket trading.

(Reporting by Kyle Peterson; Editing by Derek Caney)

At 12:30 p.m. ET, the Federal Open Market Committee will release a statement on the interest rate policy. In a Reuters poll, dealers expect the fed funds rate will remain in the 0.0 percent to 0.25 percent range. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will hold media briefing at 1815 GMT.

Bernanke will likely use his first-ever news conference on monetary policy to hammer home the case for a patient approach to withdrawing the central bank's extensive support for the U.S. economy. He will face the press in the first regularly scheduled news conference by a Fed chairman in the central bank's 97-year history.

The dollar fell broadly, marking a fresh nadir against the Swiss franc and a 29-year trough against the Australian dollar. Crude oil prices also declined as investors awaited details of the Fed's assessment of the economy.

Major companies reporting results include Boeing (BA.N), Whirlpool (WHR.N), eBay (EBAY.O), Corning (GLW.N) and WellPoint (WLP.N).

At 1230 GMT, Commerce Department releases March durable goods orders. Economists expect a 2.0 percent increase in orders versus a 0.6 percent drop in February.

Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N) is to buy Swiss medical devices maker Synthes Inc (SYST.VX) for 19 billion Swiss francs ($21.59 billion) in its largest ever buy, boosting its surgical business and reshaping the wider industry.

Mortgage Bankers Association releases at 1100 GMT Weekly Mortgage Market Index for the week ended April 22, versus the prior week. The mortgage market index read 467.5 and the refinancing index was 1,975.2 in the previous week.

Nasdaq OMX Group (NDAQ.O) and IntercontinentalExchange Inc (ICE.N) appealed directly to NYSE Euronext (NYX.N) stockholders on Tuesday, asking them to press the Big Board's directors to sit down to talk about their joint bid.

Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago releases at 1230 GMT its Chicago Fed Midwest Manufacturing Index for March. The index read 83.3 in the prior month.

News Corp (NWSA.O) is expected to receive bids for Myspace by the end of this week, according to a person familiar with the matter.

At 1500 GMT, Labor Department issues annual revisions to Employment Cost Index.

Shares in Amazon (AMZN.O) briefly turned higher in after-hours trade on Tuesday after it posted results. Costco (COST.O) was up 0.8 percent after the company announced late on Tuesday the expansion of its stock repurchase program and an increase in its quarterly cash dividend.

Tokyo stocks .N225 gained 1.4 percent after a batch of Japanese and U.S. corporate earnings came in better than expected, but the FTSEurofirst 300 .FTEU3 index of top European shares fell 0.2 percent.

On Tuesday, the Dow Jones industrial average .DJI, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index .SPX and the Nasdaq Composite Index .IXIC rose 0.8 to 0.9 percent. (Reporting by Atul Prakash; Editing by Louise Heavens)

While Fed chairman Ben Bernanke is expected to paint a cautious picture on the world's largest economy, Asian and Latin American central banks by contrast are still tightening monetary policy and some are using currency appreciation to check price pressures.

The European Central Bank raised its policy rate this month for the first time since mid-2008 and is expected to raise rates at least once more this year.

That has given new legs to the "carry trade", in which investors borrow in a low-yielding currency to invest in higher-yielding assets or currencies.

Investors have been snapping up the high-yielding Australian dollar and South Korean shares .KS11, while showing heavy interest in Indonesia's upcoming dollar bond.

Market players also added to bearish dollar bets, especially against the euro and the Swiss Franc, on expectations the Fed will cling to a near-zero interest rate policy even as it lets a $600 billion bond purchase program wind down in June.

"Focus will be on the inaugural press conference and whether Bernanke is shifting along the dove-hawk scale," said Michael Sneyd, analyst at Societe Generale.

"Attention will also be on comments for how the Fed may respond to U.S. fiscal tightening. All-in-all, the meeting is likely to give the green light for risk appetite and for dollar bears to continue to be bearish."

The dollar index .DXY, which tracks its performance against a basket of major currencies, hit the lowest since August 2008 at 73.483, before cutting some losses.

FLOWS PICK UP

Asian shares rose after robust gains posted by U.S. indices overnight, driven by better-than-expected performances from U.S. corporate heavyweights. U.S. stock futures rose 0.1 percent, suggesting a higher open on Wall Street.

South Korea's benchmark KOSPI index .KSII rose to a record high for the third consecutive session before giving back some gains as investors took profits on automaker shares. It ended flat. Hong Kong shares .HSI rose, boosted by a broad rally in financials ahead of results from Chinese banks.

MSCI's index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS rose to its highest level since January 2008, and was up 0.5 percent on the day.

Japan's Nikkei .N225 closed up 1.4 percent, supported by rebounding shares of large exporters. But it could face downward pressure after ratings agency Standard & Poor's revised its outlook on Japan's sovereign debt to negative.

Offshore flows into non-developed Asian markets have picked up after a January slump, with both emerging markets equity and bond fund groups extending their longest inflow streaks since mid-January, according to fund tracker EPFR Global.

The order book for Indonesia's eagerly awaited 10-year dollar-denominated bond has grown to around $5 billion for an issue expected to be between $1 billion to $1.5 billion in size, IFR said. Indonesia's markets have been a favorite among global investors because of the country's relatively high yields, decent economic growth and demographics.

China let the yuan rise to a post-2005 revaluation high, triggering gains in emerging Asian currencies.

Helping the case of carry trades, the Australian dollar shot to a new 29-year peak above the $1.0800 per U.S. dollar after higher-than-expected first quarter inflation suggested the central bank will eventually have to resume tightening.

SILVER PULLBACK

The dollar's woes have been further compounded by a recent drop in U.S. Treasury yields as rate traders bet that any Fed tightening would be a slow and gradual process.

In Asian time, the U.S. 10-year note yield was at 3.32 percent, just above a one-month low of 3.31 percent before the Fed decision. Ten-year yields are down by about 30 basis points since this month's highs.

In commodity markets, spot silver bounced 0.9 percent to around $46 per ounce level after falling by nearly 5 percent overnight. High volatility and the expiry of U.S. silver options added to the intensity of the decline of the precious metal.

Despite the sharp pullback in silver which rippled over into other commodities, Brent held above the $124 per barrel line, as Libya's civil war and violence-tinged unrest Syria and Yemen helped limit bearish sentiment on a price slide.