ETFs to Watch Ahead of Fed Meeting

Haruhiko Kuroda showed Wednesday he’s following in the footsteps of Ben Bernanke and Mario Draghi as he swung the Bank of Japan from incremental moves to unprecedented stimulus at the governor’s first policy meeting. The BOJ will double the monetary base by the end of 2014 through buying government bonds, the central bank said in Tokyo, in Japan’s biggest round of quantitative easing. JPMorgan Chase & Co. said the Japanese and U.S. central banks are now “in the same camp” when it comes to monetary stimulus.

When Ben Bernanke asserted last month that the Federal Reserve doesn’t ever have to sell assets, he raised questions about how the central bank can withdraw its record monetary stimulus without stoking inflation.

When Ben Bernanke asserted last month that the Federal Reserve doesn’t ever have to sell assets, he raised questions about how the central bank can withdraw its record monetary stimulus without stoking inflation.

(WASHINGTON) — The Federal Reserve is widely expected Wednesday to stick with its aggressive efforts to strengthen a still-subpar economy. The Fed will likely end a two-day meeting with a statement noting that job growth remains modest and that it’s standing by its campaign to keep loan rates at record lows to help ease unemployment. (MORE: Is the Price of Gold Signaling an Economic Slowdown?) The central bank’s efforts include buying $85 billion a month in Treasurys and mortgage bonds to try to keep long-term borrowing costs down.

(WASHINGTON) — The Federal Reserve is widely expected Wednesday to stick with its aggressive efforts to strengthen a still-subpar economy. The Fed will likely end a two-day meeting with a statement noting that job growth remains modest and that it’s standing by its campaign to keep loan rates at record lows to help ease unemployment. (MORE: Is the Price of Gold Signaling an Economic Slowdown?) The central bank’s efforts include buying $85 billion a month in Treasurys and mortgage bonds to try to keep long-term borrowing costs down.

The world’s top central bankers will get little rest in 2013.   Growth is expected to be lackluster this year in many developed countries, and interest rates are stuck near zero in Japan and the United States. Credit Suisse analysts believe that real interest rates will remain negative for at least a decade.   In such an environment, the action central banks take will be closely watched. Here, The Financialist explores what’s ahead for the Big Four.   Federal Reserve

The Federal Reserve is set to announce a fresh round of Treasury bond purchases when it meets next week, avoiding monetary policy tightening to maintain support for the weak U.S. economy amid uncertainty over the looming year-end “fiscal cliff.” Many economists think the U.S. central bank will announce monthly bond purchases of $45 billion after its policy gathering on Dec. 11-12, signaling it will continue to pump money into the U.S. economy du r ing 2013 in a bid to bring down unemployment.

Andrew Wilkinson submits: The European Central Bank dipped its toe in to the water on Thursday lifting its key short-term benchmark rate of interest from a record low to 1.25%. Within the last 24 hours the government of Portugal finally admitted that all was not well and formalized a bailout request that estimates predict will reach €75 billion.