Morning Headline. #TheFed. #Refrains. #QE_Taper. #Stock. Fed Refrains From QE Taper, Keeps Bond Buying at $85 Bln The Federal Reserve unexpectedly refrained from reducing the $85 billion pace of monthly bond buying, saying it needs more evidence of lasting improvement in the economy and warning that an increase in interest rates threatened to curb the expansion. “Conditions in the job market today are still far from what all of us would like to see,” Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said at a press conference today in Washington after a two-day meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee. “The committee has concern that rapid tightening of financial conditions in recent months would have the effect of slowing growth.” U.S. stocks rose, sending the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index to a record, while Treasuries and gold rallied as Bernanke stressed that the pace of bond buying would be dependent on economic data, and the Fed has no predetermined schedule for tapering the purchases that have pushed its balance sheet to $3.66 trillion. “There is no fixed calendar schedule, I really have to emphasize that,” Bernanke said. “If the data confirm our basic outlook” for growth and the labor market, “then we could begin later this year.” The S&P 500 climbed 1.2 percent to 1,725.48 at 4:02 p.m. in New York. The yield on the 10-Year Treasury note dropped 15 basis points to 2.70 percent. Gold for immediate delivery jumped $55.61 to $1,366.25 an ounce. Oil rose more than 2.5 percent. “It looks like the Fed has done a major reset in terms of expectations on what they need to see before they start to taper,” said Chris Rupkey, the chief financial economist for Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd. in New York. mobile.bloomberg/news/2013-09-18/fed-refrains-from-qe-taper-keeps-bond-buying-at-85-bln.html?cmpid=
Posted on: Thu, 19 Sep 2013 00:34:05 +0000
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