Investing.com -- The Federal Reserve as expected on Wednesday afternoon kept short-term interest rates unchanged, without offering any hints that lift-off on its first rate hike in nearly a decade could occur this fall.
U.S. short term interest rates have remained between zero and 0.25% for nearly six years since the end of the Financial Crisis. Nearly a decade has passed since the Federal Open Market Committee last instituted a rate hike. On Wednesday, the FOMC left its benchmark Federal Funds Rate unchanged for the 53rd consecutive meeting.
The Federal Open Market Committee indicated in its July monetary policy statement that the economy is expanding at a moderate pace, while inflation continues to remain under its long-term target of 2%. The Fed also characterized the labor market as solid, as the unemployment rate hovers around 5.3%.
Following the release, both U.S. treasury yields and the dollar moved lower, while gold prices moved slightly higher.The U.S. Dollar Index, which measures the strength of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, quickly rebounded to 97.06 after initially falling in the minutes after the release. Heading into the announcement, the index was relatively flat at 96.78 – up 0.02% on the session.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average also shot up 40 points to above 17,760 in the minutes following the release, before quickly falling back to 17, 709.17, up 0.45% on the session. Prior to the announcement, both the Dow and the S&P 500 were up moderately for the day by roughly 0.45%.