Recapping the day's news and newsmakers through the lens of CNBC.
Notes:
The drumroll has finally ended: the Fed's taper is starting. The Federal Open Market Committee announced this afternoon that it is trimming its $85 billion-per-month bond-buying program to $75 billion.
The program, meant to keep long-term interest rates low to stimulate the economy, had been expected to begin winding down in September, but at that point the FOMC felt conditions were still not quite good enough.
Now that the taper is beginning, though slowly, all eyes will be on the reaction of the financial markets. Some experts have attributed much of the stock market's dramatic gains in recent years to the Fed's easy-money policy, and they have warned stock could dive with this prop removed. Others say the strengthening economy would continue to support stocks after the taper started.
Quote:
"I think...logically, this is what they had to do. ... In this economy, you have to pull back from the most extreme monetary policy in a century. So I think it's overdue. I'm glad to see it."— David Kelly, managing director at JPMorgan Funds