European stocks ended modestly lower Wednesday, as investors prepared to hear that the Federal Reserve likely has decided to continue raising interest rates.

U.S. stock-market indexes ended a turbulent session slightly lower on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve delivered its sixth interest-rate increase since the end of 2015 and signaled it still expects to deliver two more before the end of the year. The central bank also upped its forecast for the number of rate increases it expects to deliver in 2019.

Asian stock markets outside mainland China strengthened Thursday, after the Federal Reserve raised interest rates but stopped short of signaling a faster pace of increases for this year.