Economy
In reply to the discussion: Weekend Economists and the Accidental President December 13-15, 2013 [View all]Demeter
(85,373 posts)PROBABLY BOTH, DEPENDING ON WHICH END YOU'RE FACING
http://news.yahoo.com/fed-end-2013-bang-whimper-235505100--sector.html
The Federal Reserve holds the wild card for the U.S. stock market next week. Will the U.S. central bank now slow the pace of its stimulative bond buying as the economy's outlook begins to brighten or will it wait, setting the stage for stock investors' undreamed of gains to keep going?
Fed policymakers gather for the last time in 2013 for a two-day meeting that concludes on Wednesday. Many investors are still expecting the Fed to delay scaling back its $85-billion-a-month bond buying program until early next year. But recent developments suggest a December move by the Fed is at least in the realm of possibilities. Those developments include a stronger-than-expected November jobs report, a U.S. budget deal in Washington and the latest signs of tame inflation. A decision to begin scaling back quantitative easing now is "potentially the largest factor for the market in the near term," said Robert McIver, co-portfolio manager of the Jensen Quality Growth Fund in Lake Oswego, Oregon. "The very thought of it has had a very negative reaction in the market," so a period of consolidation is likely to follow, he said. Indeed, stocks logged their worst week in nearly four months this week.
The Fed's ultra-loose money policy, adopted more than four years ago, has helped lift the Standard & Poor's 500 index 24 percent so far this year...
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