Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke simultaneously helped and hurt the market today as he discussed the Euro Zone financial crisis as well as economic strain and recovery in the United States. His comments helped the market this morning as he mentioning that Europe’s financial crisis would likely have little effect on the U.S. economy. He took away some of that positivity when he observed that the United State’s economic recovery was not going as fast as he and others would like. He also mentioned that the nation needs to be more concerned with fiscal responsibility, which is something investors sometimes like to hear and sometimes don’t since it can be taken as either a roadmap toward recovery or a caution against impending financial fallout.
As a result of this somewhat mixed bag of economic outlook and commentary, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 4.73 points at 9,899.25. The S&P 500 lost 6.31 points to close at 1,055.69 and the Nasdaq closed a 2,158.85 losing 11.72 points. European and Asian markets fared much better than their U.S. counterparts, with only Japan’s Nikkei closing down on Wednesday.
In even more good news, the Euro edged up slightly as did the pound, the yen and the Canadian dollar, indicating some positive change in the
