The tide is changing

THE 1st of November was an exciting day. The reason for my excitement was due to the monetary policy meeting at the American central bank, the US Federal Reserve. The question was not if the most powerful central bank in the world would hike interest rates again; that was not a realistic outcome. The wording of the statement at the following press conference, this time, was more important than normal.

It might sound unbelievable that a whole financial market studies what words a central bank chooses to describe what it decides. But this is what happened, and very much why it decided as it did. Here, the Fed is very good at giving guidance to investors about what it does consider. It's another reason financial markets carefully listen to the central bank. Further, US interest rates might be close to trading at the very upper end, which makes life on Wall Street extraordinarily thrilling.