Today, January 26, in its post Open Market Committee press release the Federal Reserve said it would “soon” be appropriate to raise interest rates, as inflation runs above policymakers’ preferred target and the job market strengthens.
The Fed left interest rates unchanged with the benchmark at 0% to 0.25%. The Fed also left its schedule in place to end its bond buying program in March. And promised to shrink its balance sheet holdings (most probably by not replacing bonds in its portfolio when they mature) “in a predictable manner.”
Stocks had moved up today ahead of the Fed’s 2:00 p.m. press release with the Standard & Poor’s 500 higher by 1.53% as of 1:40 p.m. New York time and the Dow Jones industrial Average ahead 0.91%. Tech stocks were the strongest gainers with the NASDQ Composite up 2.45% and the NASDAQ 100 gaining 2.445.
Prices didn’t change much in the immediate aftermath of the press release with the S&P 500 up 1.64% for the day as of 2:10 p.m. The NASDAQ Composite was showing a gain of 2.65% for the day.
Now let’s see if Jerome Powell, the Fed chair, moves stocks in his news conference that starts at 2:30 p.m.
