In this July 16, 2015 file photo, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

U.S. stock futures were lower Thursday while Asian markets were mixed, as investors bet that the Federal Reserve would not raise interest rates.

Here is where major market index futures stood ahead of the start of regular trading:

Dow: -0.1%

S&P 500: -0.2%

Nasdaq:  -0.1%

Japan's Nikkei 225 index gained 1.4% while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index lost 0.3%. The Shanghai composite index dropped 2.1%.

European shares were higher in early trading Thursday.

Stocks rallied Wednesday afternoon after the Fed kicked off its long-awaited two-day policy meeting.

Two months ago, it seemed almost certain that the Fed was going to raise rates in September, but following turmoil in financial markets and concerns about China's economy, more investors believe the Fed will wait until December to raise rates.

Interest rates have been near zero since 2008 in response to the financial crisis and recession. The Fed's low interest rate policy was designed to encourage lending, but it also helped drive a seven-year bull market in stocks.

Contributing: Associated Press

Republican presidential hopeful Carly Fiorina on September 16, 2015.
Source: Frederic J. Brown AFP/Getty

Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina brought the late Steve Jobs to the defense of her time at Hewlett-Packard during Wednesday’s GOP debate.

Responding to rival Donald Trump’s criticism of her tenure at Hewlett Packard, which included huge losses in the once venerable company’s staff ranks and market value and ended in her firing, Fiorina said:

 But as for the firing, I have been very honest about this from the day it happened. When you challenge the status quo, you make enemies. I made a few. Steve Jobs told me that when he called me the day I was fired to say, hey, been there, done that twice.

Fiorina has aligned herself with Jobs in the past. "When you lead and when you challenge the status quo, you make enemies," she said on CNN. "It's why Steve Jobs, Oprah Winfrey, Walt Disney and Mike Bloomberg have all been fired."

Before the campaign, comparisons with Jobs — whose foresight and ability to turn around a company has made him revered by many top executives —  weren’t so favorable. She was fired from H-P HPQ after the company’s stock dropped more than half, sunk by the early deterioration in the PC business, the dot-com bubble’s bursting, and the controversial Compaq merger she oversaw. Infoworld  in 2008  declared her the “anti-Steve Jobs.”

Read more on Fiorina’s tenure at H-P.

Read the candidates’ best one liners.

The logo of the Oracle, a Redwood City, Calif.-based computer technology and database company.

Oracle ORCL stock fell 1.7% in after hours trading Wednesday after the company beat analysts' earnings expectations but fell short on revenue in its first fiscal quarter earnings report.

The software and cloud-computing giant’s revenue for the quarter ending Aug. 31 fell 1.7%, to $8.45 billion.

Analysts had forecast sales of $8.53 billion, according to Thomson Financial.

Earnings per share were 53 cents, above the 52 cents forecast by analysts.

Oracle has seen software license sales fall as the tech world shifts to Web-delivered cloud products.

The company released its earnings report while the annual Dreamforce conference of rival Salesforce focused on the huge market for cloud-based enterprise services.

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Sept. 15, 2015. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

The most closely watched and arguably most analyzed Federal Reserve meeting since the dark days of the 2008 financial crisis gets underway today with the Fed's too-close-to-call decision on interest rates on the line. Investors that want to get mentally prepared should cue up a version of the band Europe's ubiquitous, anthem-like song, The Final Countdown.

After weeks of debate and angst, and weeks of will they or won't they talk, the Fed's September meeting is here.

The Janet Yellen-led Fed gathers today to kick off its two-day meeting — and gets a final reading on inflation at the consumer level — before going public with its rate decision Thursday at 2 p.m. ET. The Fed has been waiting for inflation to rise closer to 2%, a level it deems more healthy. (Today’s reading on the August consumer price index showed inflation remains muted, with a month-over-month decline of 0.1%. The core rate, which strips out volatile components came in unchanged at an annual pace of 1.8%)

The Fed faces a touch decision.

On the side of the ledger pointing to a rate hike for the first time since 2006 is an improving U.S. job market.

On the other side of the ledger — or reasons the Fed should delay the hike until later this year or early in 2016 — is recent market turbulence and worries about China's economy.

There's a growing camp on Wall Street that says the market will greet a rate increase with a sigh of relief and that stocks will rally as the uncertainty of what the Fed will do fades. This bullish camp is bolstered by the belief that even if the Fed does hike rates, it will stress that its rate hike cycle will be slow and deliberate and, therefore, won’t have a big adverse impact on the economy.

Other pundits, however, say the Fed hasn't prepared the market for a hike and stocks will dip sharply if they decide to increase rates.

How stocks react if the Fed doesn't hike rates is also a question mark. Stocks could rise in a relief rally. Go nowhere as a no-vote on the hike is already priced in. Or fall on fears the Fed is worried about the economic outlook.

Take your pick.

Shares of Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) are up 3% Wednesday after late yesterday announcing it plans to slash between 25,000 and 30,000 jobs.

The job cuts are part of a financial move to separate the business into two more focused firms: One concentrating on computers and printers and the other on software and services for business.

The cuts account for about 8% of the company’s total workforce at the end of the most recent fiscal year.

Shares are up 83 cents, or 3%, to $27.94. HP is still a massive employer. Even after the job cuts, it’s still the third largest employer in the technology sector.

Follow Matt Krantz on Twitter @mattkrantz

It was reported that Hewlett-Packard Co. said it will cut 25,000 to 30,000 more jobs as part of a $2.7 billion restructuring September 15, 2015. Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images