by Michael Tarsala
Investors who might have expected the Fed to make even a minor policy change were let down Wednesday by the central bank’s inaction.
Heading into this weeks’ FOMC meeting, The Fed had been signaling via press leaks that it’s considering new steps to kick start the economy. There was some of those new steps might be announced or alluded to following this week’s FOMC meeting.
No dice.
Here’s what happened instead:
- The Fed kept interest rates unchanged.
- It reiterated its stance that it would keep rates steady through late 2014 many economists had expected the central bank to lengthen that into 2015.
- The central bank signaled that further bond buying is now a possibility, but it did nothing to institute that plan right away.
- There was no talk about the Fed cutting interest rates on the cash reserves it offers to banks. Bloomberg had suggested that as a possibility, in an effort to spur more lending.
In a statement, the Fed said., “The Committee will closely monitor incoming information on economic and financial developments and will provide additional accommodation as needed.”
The statement was more or less what it said in June: That it was, prepared to take further action, “as appropriate.”
Here is the full statement:
