The Federal Reserve kicks off a two-day policy meeting, with an announcement expected at 7:15pm. Investors widely expect the central bank to maintain its accommodative policy to juice the recovery, which gave a boost to growth-related sectors such as financials, techs and industrials.

The Dow is now just a few points short of a record point gain for any one quarter, the current record is 1,339 points set in the fourth quarter of 1998. As of yesterday’s close, the Dow is up 1,380 points for the quarter, with six trading sessions remaining. It’s also within 200 points of the key 10,000 mark.

The U.S Treasury auctioned $43 billion of two-year notes at a high-yield of 1.0345%. Demand was strong, with a bid to-cover ratio of 3.23. The five-year auction is today and the seven-year is Thursday.

The Treasury auction of $40 billion in 5-year notes today is expected to go smoothly. Tuesday’s auction of $43 billion in 2-year notes was well received. Bonds gained, with the yield on the 10-year falling to 3.456% and the 2-year

slipping to 0.967%.

The UK market and the European markets have opened flat today. U.S futures markets are pointing to a mixed start when their markets resume trading this afternoon. Futures currently forecast the Dow to open down around 18 points, the Nasdaq to open up 6 and S&P index to open flat.

Sources: Reuters: BBC: Bloomberg: Lawshare: Deutsche Bank (db): Proquote: Financial Times: Wall Street Journal: CLSA: Sharescope: Market News. Capital Economics: CNBC: Wikipedia: GaveKal:

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