As Investors Puzzle Over Fed Statement, Dow Gains
What did they say? What did they mean?</br></br>Investors routinely dissect the Federal Reserve policy committee's statements to infer far-reaching economic implications from a phrase here or a deleted word there. The Fed's comments Wednesday afternoon have proven especially tricky to decipher.</br></br>The stock market rallied just after the Fed's latest statement was released, as many investors interpreted the deletion of a previous mention of "firming" rates, along with the absence of any mention of subprime-mortgage lending, as a sign that policy makers are now leaning toward cutting in their target interest rate in the months ahead.</br></br>After the previous Fed meeting in January, investors had taken the Fed's mention of possible "firming" as a sign of possible rate increases to tame inflation.</br></br>The Dow Jones Industrial Average has gainly modestly each day as economists debate what the Fed meant.