Wall Street gets a rude shock as QE3 put in doubt

The US Federal Reserve has announced there will be no third round of quantitative easing. This comes as a shock to Wall Street which has become used to fiscal stimulus.

The poor data from the US has led many investors to expect the Federal Reserve to launch a third round of quantitative easing (QE3), or money printing, to boost growth. This week Fed chairman Ben Bernanke acknowledged the "frustratingly slow" rebound and said the recovery can't be considered "truly established" until the labour market improves significantly. But he thinks the US is just going through a soft patch and offered no hint of QE3. "Wall Street promptly threw a strop," said Jamie Chisholm on FT.com, with the S&P 500 sliding to a three-month low. Other risky assets also weakened.

What the commentators said

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