If you were surprised that the Federal Reserve didn’t enact further

If you were surprised that the Federal Reserve didn’t enact further stimulus measures to combat a sluggish economy you were in the minority. Overall, markets were seemingly unfazed as The U.S. economic brain trust stopped short of unveiling any support mechanisms following their two-day meeting. The Fed did concede that the economy has “decelerated” but indicated only that they will continue to monitor economic data for further proof that the economy needs help…which has some believing the Fed may have run out of ideas. Nonetheless, investors shifted focus overseas to the ECB to see if ECB President Mario Draghi could deliver on his promise of doing “whatever it takes” to save the euro. After keeping interest rates at .75% the European Central Bank did little more than say “we’re working on it!” as they announced plans-to-draw-up-plans to buy bonds of distressed countries like Spain and Italy. The lack of immediate action has markets under pressure in early trading but could we really have expected a cure-all solution after a 1-day meeting? Initial jobless claims, and job cuts were released today but nobody seemed to care. Factory orders are on tap for 10:00 am EST but good or bad it probably won’t budge the Fed. Have a great day!