June 10 (UPI) — The Federal Reserve announced Wednesday it’s decided to leave interest rates unchanged, and near zero, after its latest policy meeting. Stocks surged on the news.
The Fed, which lowered rates twice in March as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, also said it doesn’t expect to raise the federal funds rate until at least 2022.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 rose on the announcement, erasing the day’s earlier losses. The Nasdaq Composite rose to new highs, gaining 0.9 percent.
“The disruptions to economic activity here and abroad have significantly affected financial conditions and have impaired the flow of credit to U.S. households and businesses,” the committee said in a statement.
“The committee expects to maintain this target range until it is confident that the economy has weathered recent events and is on track to achieve its maximum employment and price stability goals.”
Earlier, the U.S. Labor Department had announced that the U.S. Consumer Price Index fell for the third month in a row in May. Bad news also hit the oil shale industry, with a report from the Institute for Economics and Peace saying that a production dispute between Russia and OPEC could result in the “collapse” of the shale industry.
