No surprise here: The U.S. Federal Reserve held its key interest rate unchanged, although it made a number of interesting adjustments to its monetary policy statement, released on Tuesday afternoon.
In short, the Fed remains less that ebullient on the U.S. economic recovery. This time, it said that the "economic recovery is continuing, though at a rate that has been insufficient to bring down unemployment" - a slight shift from its November statement when the Fed said that "the pace of recovery in output and employment continues to be slow."
It was also more specific about hurdles facing housing. Now, the Fed said that the "housing sector continues to be depressed." In November, it said that just housing starts were depressed.
Okay, maybe these are subtle changes that don't mean very much. At least, that seems to be the way investors are interpreting them. The Dow Jones industrial average was up 68 points shortly after the release of the policy statement, against a gain of 75 points before the release. The broader S&P 500 was up 4 points, against a gain of 5 points before the release.
Goldman Sachs had suggested earlier that it would be interesting to see how the votes lined up this time around. Yet again, just one member -- Thomas Hoenig -- voted against the policy of accommodation, suggesting that the Fed's policy remains relatively popular within its ranks.
Follow Market Blog on Twitter: @marketblog