What's going on?

Similar to its last meeting, the US Federal Reserve (�the Fed�) didn�t announce any changes to its target interest rate when it convened on Wednesday. But investors were paying a lot of attention to the Fed�s statement for clues as to when it might next raise the interest rate. �Fed speak� is notoriously difficult to interpret, but �not anytime soon� was likely the gist of their message.

What does this mean?

To understand the importance of all these Fed meetings one needs to realize that the Fed�s actions have been the single biggest driver of market performance since the financial crisis. Its policies have been exceedingly supportive of the economy and stock markets (by, for example, keeping interest rates at historic lows in order to encourage companies and people to borrow/spend money). And that�s driven a seven-year positive run for US stocks. So, investors are going to pay close attention anytime the Fed speaks.

Why should I care?

For the markets: This news � or, really, lack of news � is likely neutral-to-positive for markets. It wasn�t long ago that the Fed Chairwoman made it crystal clear that the Fed would be very cautious about raising interest rates. That helped the value of the US dollar to go down (see explanation) and US stocks to rise in price (see explanation). Some investors thought that the Fed might reverse course and use Wednesday�s meeting to signal that the likelihood of an interest rate hike at its next meeting in June had increased � but that didn�t really happen.

For you personally: Low interest rates can cause people to invest in riskier things. That can include stocks, �junk� bonds or speculative real estate. While people �chase� returns, they could be investing in areas that are riskier than they realize and, perhaps, inappropriate for their circumstances.