Ready to Have Your Expectations Managed?

The Fed’s tiresome dog-and-pony show is scheduled to air at 2:00 p.m., and we can safely assume it will drive stocks into spasms that will leave them trading at least somewhat higher. Central bank drivel seems to be the only ‘news’ these days capable of pushing the broad averages past levels of supply, even though the news itself is on a par with a decision by your local water quality board to reduce chlorination by 5%.  We’ll be on the sidelines ahead of the announcement, waiting for Emmett Kelly herself to tell us what the Open Market Committee has decided this month. The news media’s best and brightest will tell us what she said, then traders and speculators can return to their lives: a perpetual tizzy of elation, misery and doubt that is about the only behavior the Fed has succeeded in managing.