Wall Street gets what it wanted to hear
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Wall Street gets what it wanted to hear
KAI RYSSDAL: Today was a great example of Wall Street hearing what Wall Street wanted to hear.
The Federal Reserve ended its two-day meeting today without changing something called the Federal Funds rate. The Dow jumped 50 points on that news, settled back a bit, and then took off on a tear that put the blue chips up by 1.3 percent by the closing bell.
What gave investors the burst of confidence was their understanding of what the Fed said in its announcement. That Chairman Bernanke and company might not raise — or tighten — interest rates any time soon.
We called Chris Low at FTN Financial to get his take, and he read the Fed’s comments a little bit differently.
CHRIS LOW: What was so remarkable about the statement today is that the bias towards tightening is gone, but the bias towards inflation risks remains. In fact if anything, the Fed is more worried about inflation now than they were at the last meeting in January.
Mark your calendars if you’re the type to keep track of these kinds of things. The Fed meets next on the 9th of May.
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