Breaking: Fed leaves policy unchanged, USD initially down

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The Federal Reserve was expected to leave its policy unchanged in the first decision for 2019. After Fed Chair Jerome Powell and his colleagues called for patience, the focus shifted to a possible change in the balance sheet reduction program.

In the previous decision in December, Powell said that the program to withdraw liquidity from markets would continue "autopilot." Since then, he opened the door to changes, if needed. A recent report by the WSJ put the balance sheet in the limelight by saying that officials are mulling an early end to the "Quantitative Tightening" policy.