The policy making committee of the Federal Reserve gathered today in Washington to pass judgment on the state of the economy and the stock market certainly liked what it heard, though precious metals markets surely did not.

As expected, there were no changes to short-term interest rates, existing policies were unchanged, and no new policy moves were announced.

The Fed acknowledged an improving labor market and rising oil prices while also downplaying the threat of spillover effects from Europe, that is, now that the European Central Bank has finally seen fit to print up more than a trillion dollars for the greater good.

“Steady as she goes” is what equity markets were waiting to hear and they responded accordingly (Susie Gharib and Tom Hudson no doubt had twinkles in their eyes on PBS’s Nightly Business Report) while gold and silver traders were again disappointed to hear nary a mention of further central bank money printing on this side of the Atlantic and many of them exited positions as a result.

None of that should come as much of a surprise.

But, what was interesting about today’s meeting was that the policy statement released after its conclusion had a few subtle changes as annotated in the graphic below, something that has been the exception to the rule lately.

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