Wall St waits for Fed's comments on rates

Wall Street, gladdened by US corporate profits, will take its cue from the Federal Reserve's policy meeting on interest rates…

Wall Street, gladdened by US corporate profits, will take its cue from the Federal Reserve's policy meeting on interest rates this week and quarterly earnings from tech bellwether Cisco Systems.

Investors do not expect a change in the level of interest rates, which are at four-decade lows. With a dearth of economic data, the market wants to see the US central bank's comments to gauge the thinking of Fed chief Alan Greenspan and his colleagues on the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), which will meet on Tuesday.

"The Fed chief and other top officials have said they expect the economy to improve later this year," said Mr Stanley Nabi, of Credit Suisse. So with that expectation I don't think they will cut rates." - (Reuters)