Special topicBaccaratxbearbrickThe Fed keeps its benchmark interest rate unchanged and slows down the pace of table contraction from June.

Xinhua News Agency reporter Liu Yanan

The Federal Reserve Board of the United States concluded its two-day monetary policy meeting on Monday.BaccaratxbearbrickAnnounced that the target range of the federal funds rate would be maintained at 5.Baccaratxbearbrick.25% to 5%BaccaratxbearbrickIt remains unchanged between .5% and has slowed the pace of balance sheet contraction since June.

This is the sixth consecutive meeting of the Federal Reserve since September last year to keep interest rates unchanged. In a statement issued on the same day, the Federal Reserve said that although the inflation rate has eased in the past year, it is still high. In recent months, the Fed has made "no further progress" in meeting its 2 per cent inflation target. Until there is more confidence that inflation will continue to move towards its long-term target of 2 per cent, it is "inappropriate" for the Fed to lower its target range for the federal funds rate.

Due to the stickiness of inflation or hindering the Federal Reserve to start cutting interest rates in the short term, the three major stock indexes of the New York stock market diverged in early trading and maintained a narrow range of consolidation. In the afternoon, Federal Reserve Chairman Colin Powell's statement at a press conference that the Fed was unlikely to raise interest rates at one point stimulated the three major stock indexes higher, but the expectation that persistent inflationary pressures might cause the Fed to postpone interest rate cuts put pressure on the market. Investors chose to sell after digesting Powell's statement, and the market got out of the "mini" rally of less than two hours on the same day. By the end of the day, the three major stock indexes were still up and down.

By the close of the day, the Dow Jones Industrial average was up 87.37 points, or 0.23%, from the previous day, while the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index fell 17.30 points, or 0.34%, to 5018.39. The Nasdaq composite index fell 52.34 points, or 0.33%, to 15605.48.

Overall, investors in the US stock market have digested the information released by the Federal Reserve that day, and the market's attention has begun to turn to the upcoming US non-farm payrolls data for April.

So far this year, persistent inflation has forced the market to postpone expectations of when the Fed will start cutting interest rates.

The Fed is expected to start cutting interest rates in December, given that inflation is still sticky and the rate of decline is slowing, a team led by Michael Gabon, chief US economist for global research at Bank of America, said on the 1st.

Jim Cullen, chief strategist for global fixed income at Morgan Stanley Investment Management, said the market expects the Fed to start cutting interest rates in December, but there is also a lot of speculation that the rate cut may start in July.

Karen analysis, if the labor market starts to weaken, the Fed may start to cut interest rates at an earlier point in time. If the labor market stays strong, the Fed may leave interest rates unchanged until December.

It is worth noting that the Federal Reserve announced on the same day that it had slowed the pace of contraction for two years since June, forming a certain support for the market. Some analysts believe that the Fed's slowdown in the pace of contraction may reduce the upward pressure on Treasury yields.