The U.S. Federal Open Market Committee concluded its monetary policy meeting by holding the U.S. interest rate steady at its record low level. The FOMC had cut the interest rate to a new target range of 0 percent to 0.25 percent on December 16th and 
today’s decision to keep the rate unchanged was widely expected by market forecasts.
The Fed statement accompanying the rate decision announced that it would further expand its balance sheet by spending more money in the mortgage market and by buying longer-term Treasury securities.
The statement said, “To provide greater support to mortgage lending and housing markets, the Committee decided today to increase the size of the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet further by purchasing up to an additional $750 billion of agency mortgage-backed securities, bringing its total purchases of these securities to up to $1.25 trillion this year, and to increase its purchases of agency debt this year by up to $100 billion to a total of up to $200 billion. Moreover, to help improve conditions in private credit markets, the Committee decided to purchase up to $300 billion of longer-term Treasury securities over the next six months.”
The interest rate also looks to be at its record low level for “an extended period” according to the FOMC as the economy continues to be weak through the near term.
You can read the full Fed statement here.
Forex Market – US Dollar falls sharply after rate announcement and monetary decision.
The U.S. dollar plunged today in forex trading following the interest rate decision and the accompanying monetary details. The dollar has fallen against the all of the major currencies for the day.
The euro is higher versus the dollar today as the EUR/USD has gained from today’s 1.3045 opening(00:00 GMT) to trading at approximately 1.3471 in the afternoon of the US trading session at 3:54pm EST according to currency data from Oanda.
The British pound has advanced today versus the American currency from the 1.4045 opening to trading at 1.4256 dollars per pound. The dollar has dropped against the Japanese yen today as the USD/JPY has declined from its 98.46 opening to trading at 96.18 yen per usd.
The USD has declined against the Swiss franc from the 1.1786 opening to trading at 1.1407. The Australian dollar has gained as the AUD/USD has jumped from 0.6622 to 0.6783 while the New Zealand dollar has also jumped from 0.5299 usd per nzd to trading at 0.5459 later today.
The dollar has declined against the Canadian dollar after opening at 1.2687 earlier today to trading later at 1.2463.
EUR/USD Chart – The Euro spiking today against the US Dollar following the US Fed decision.
