By CountingPips.com
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 cut the interest rate to the target range of 0 percent to 0.25 percent in December 2008 and today’s decision to keep the rate unchanged was widely expected by market forecasts.
The Fed statement said that “economic activity has picked up following its severe downturn” but that the economic climate is “likely to remain weak for a time”. The raising of interest rates will be 
some time in coming as the Fed once again maintained the familiar phrase that interest rates would stay at low levels for “an extended period” as inflation has not become an issue.
Also, the Fed announced a program of buying $1.25 trillion in mortgage-backed securities and up to $200 billion of agency debt in an effort to keep mortgage rates low and support the housing markets. The program of buying $300 billion in Treasuries is still on pace to finish at the end of October.
US Dollar higher in Forex Trading today.
The U.S. dollar has been mostly higher today in forex trading against the other major currencies on this interest rate day. The dollar has been stronger versus the euro, Canadian dollar, Swiss franc, New Zealand dollar, Australian dollar and the Japanese yen while trading almost unchanged against the British pound.
The euro has fallen versus the dollar today as the EUR/USD has declined from its 1.4810 opening(00:00 GMT) to trading at 1.4777 in the late afternoon of the U.S. trading session at 3:28pm EDT according to currency data from Oanda.
The British pound is almost unchanged today as the GBP/USD has edged up from its 1.6388 opening exchange rate to trading at 1.6394 usd per gbp. The dollar has gained ground versus the Japanese yen and trading at 91.17 after opening at the day at the 90.79 exchange rate.
The dollar has increased today versus the Canadian loonie as the USD/CAD trades at the exchange rate of 1.0731 after opening the day at 1.0677.
The dollar has gained against the Swiss franc as the USD/CHF trades at 1.0249 after opening at 1.0224 today. The Australian and New Zealand dollars have been lower against dollar as the AUD/USD trades at 0.8724 after a 0.8759 opening while the NZD/USD trades at 0.7223 today after opening at the exchange rate of 0.7259.
NZD/USD Weekly Chart – The New Zealand Dollar, despite its decline today, has been on quite a run versus the US Dollar since the first quarter of 2009. The NZD/USD has come from a low of around 0.4890 in the beginning of March to reaching its highest exchange rate in over a year this week around 0.7300.
