90 at 9: Fed slows money printing; NZ$ jumps back over 67 USc

Bernard Hickey details the key news overnight in 90 seconds at 9am in association with ASB, including news from the US Federal Reserve's regular FOMC meeting on setting monetary policy for the world's largest economy. The Fed kept its OCR at 0-0.25%, but said in its statement it was spreading out its bond buy-back programme until the end of October from the end of September, the FT reported. This is effectively a slowing down of the Fed's monetary stimulus and a preparation for withdrawing the stimulus. The Federal Reserve said it saw the economy levelling out and spending stabilising. The Dow rallied on the upbeat talk about the economy, while US Treasuries fell on news of the slower printing and a poorly received auction of new bonds overnight, Bloomberg reported. The Fed must withdraw the stimulus, but when? Meanwhile, the NZ dollar rose half a cent to over 67 USc on the Fed's news, which increased appetites for risky currencies such as ours.