The Federal Reserve on Wednesday kept short-term interest
rates near zero and maintained, as it has for months, that
rates would stay at that level for “an extended period.”

Despite intense market speculation, the central bank
disclosed nothing about the fate of the $2.3 trillion balance
sheet it accumulated as it acquired mortgage-backed
securities in an effort to prop up the housing market.

The Fed reiterated its expectation that the benchmark fed
funds rate would remain “exceptionally low,” as it has since
December 2008, for “an extended period,” despite growing
concerns among policy makers that the stance was too
constraining.

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