US FED announces start to tapering QE bond purchases

The Federal Reserve bank in the US announced yesterday its intention to begin the much anticipated reduction of their QE stimulus package. The $120 billion a month bond purchase programme which was put in place to bolster the market through the COVID pandemic has been a widely and hotly debated topic in markets and yesterday’s announcement was well expected. Predictably this announcement was largely priced into the market but the accompanying commentary from FED chair Jay Powell about the US economy remaining uncertain and therefore not needing any rate hikes was taken positively and thus boosted US equity markets into the close.