I think I liked the old Greenspan days better when the market was basically left to figure out things on its own. Bernanke and now Yellen are trying to be more transparent, and market analysts are behaving like spoiled children wanting more candy. This morning, oil prices rose, and the markets followed suit. After studying the FOMC announcement, the market decided the door was left open to further rate hikes and the tantrums began. SPX lost $21 to close at $1883 and RUT closed down $15 to $1003. That leaves both indexes close to the support level that has appeared to be developing over the past few trading sessions. Volatility rose about six tenths of a point to 23% - moderately high, but not too high.

Trading volume rose with 3.1 billion shares of the S&P 500 stocks trading. Volume rose 10% on the NYSE and rose 12% on NASDAQ.

New home sales increased to an annualized rate of 544k for December.

The Fed announcement left interest rates unchanged, and said future rate hikes would be small and would depend on the data (same old story). New language spoke to market volatility and global economic conditions and said the FOMC will be monitoring those issues closely - duh. It should be obvious that the urban legend circulating about four rate hikes in 2016 is toast given market conditions since the first of the year plus some mediocre economic numbers on top as dressing. But the Fed didn't explicitly make any promises and the market didn't like that. We'll see if that mood continues tomorrow. Maybe a good night's sleep will help.