Sept 19 (Reuters) - Australian shares are set to open slightly higher on Thursday, tracking modest Wall Street gains after U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell allayed initial market concerns about limits to future interest rate cuts.
The Fed on Wednesday signaled a higher bar to further rate cuts after easing its benchmark overnight lending rate by a quarter of a percentage point. Powell, in a press conference later, promised future cuts "if the economy does turn down". local share price index futures YAPcm1 rose 0.1%, a 14.4-point premium to the underlying S&P/ASX 200 index .AXJO close. The benchmark dipped 0.2% on Wednesday.
New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index .NZ50 rose 0.1% in early trade.