Federal Reserve | featured news

The Fed spoke - and financial markets rallied. The Dow Jones industrial average surged more than 429 points, its tenth highest point gain in history and the biggest since March 2009. It was just one day after the Dow had its worst point decline since 2008.

The Federal Reserve said Tuesday that it will likely keep interest rates at record lows for the next two years after acknowledging that the economy is weaker than it had thought and faces increasing risks.

The Federal Reserve may take steps Tuesday to try to boost investor confidence, Bloomberg News reports.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke renewed his promise on Thursday that the central bank could put more monetary stimulus into play if the economic recovery stumbles.

If the U.S. economic slowdown weren't enough to deal with, the Federal Reserve this week must consider a new threat: a resurgent European debt crisis that could imperil the global economy.

The United States has not seen a balanced budget since 2001. Although private banks in the U.S. hold the majority of the country’s debt, over 52% according to MSNBC, the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve Board estimate that foreign governments hold 4.4 trillion of the country’s $14 trillion debt in Treasury securities.

The U.S. economy is not fully recovered from its deep recession with housing still weighing on growth, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Friday in a speech on the importance of community development.

The recent surge in oil prices is no prelude to broader price increases that would force the U.S. Federal Reserve to raise interest rates, two top Fed officials said on Thursday.

U.S. Federal Reserve officials are increasingly confident of the economic recovery but remain unsatisfied with the healing of the job market, minutes of their January meeting released on Wednesday showed.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress Friday that there's increasing evidence that a "self-sustaining" economic recovery is taking hold, but he said the Fed's $600 billion Treasury bond-buying program is still needed because it will take years for unemployment to drop to more normal levels.