Federal Open Market Committee: Full statement in this post. The short version - "expanding moderately," rates on hold, and a Lacker dissent. Gold initially sold off, but later bounced back. Reaction from an assortment of bank analysts in this post. Hawk alert! Cardiff has more detail. Bernanke says no to a period of catch-up inflation, given the impact that it would have on expectations. There's also an underlying concern around central bank credibility. However, the obvious, perhaps simplistic, response of doves will be to ask what the point of having credibility is, if you can't use it to achieve your objective. Read Cardiff's post for an overview of the debate. Italians are less confident. A business confidence indicator, that has a tendency to lead changes in GDP, fell to 89.5 in April after a reading of 91.1 in March. Analyst expectations had been for an increase, to 92.1. David has a GDP/indicator chart with the latest data. The sum of a car's parts was $14,350 on average in 2011, according to estimates by Bank of America Merrill Lynch. A full breakdown of the suppliers, and further discussion, in Lisa's post. Bank earnings: Barclays posted an underlying £2.45bn first quarter pre-tax profit on Thursday, although a further £300m provision related to the mis-selling of payment protection insurance helped push the UK bank into a statutory loss, the FT reports. Meanwhile, the FT separately reports that net profit at Santander, Spain's biggest bank by assets, fell 24 per cent to €1.6bn in the first quarter of this year from €2.11bn a year ago, largely because of higher bad loan provisions in Spain and other markets. Deutsche Bank's profits dipped more than expected in the first quarter, due to declines in trading income and a €257m hit from the sale of pharmaceutical company Actavis Group hf, Bloomberg reports. Royal Dutch Shell saw its first-quarter profits rise 11 per cent to $7.7bn as low natural gas prices in the US were offset by improved operating performance, higher production and strong oil prices, reports the FT. People close to the firm suggested acquisitions would be focused on insurance businesses and other non-bank financial services firms across Europe, the FT reports. General Electric shareholders revolt, having come close to winning a vote that would have given them more direct control over the the largest US industrial group by market capitalisation against the wishes of its board, the FT says. A former Morgan Stanley investment adviser has pleaded guilty to conspiring to evade the bank's internal controls by bribing a Chinese official to win lucrative real estate investments for the bank and himself, reports the FT. ExxonMobil and Chevron have sharply increased their dividends in a sign of confidence in future earnings. Exxon raised its quarterly dividend by 21 per cent, and Chevron by 11 per cent, the FT reports. On Monday it emerged that Citigroup, Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs had teamed up to bid on the securities in the New York Fed's "Maiden Lane III" portfolio, the FT says. Mad-cows sought: the US department of agriculture is trying to track down any possible offspring of a daily cow in California that was diagnosed as suffering from mad-cow disease, as such offspring may also be infected. The agency is also trying to identify other cows that may have had contact with it when it was younger. The case is the first in the country since 2006, according to the WSJ. The identification of the infected cow was either a stroke of luck or a validation of a monitoring programme put in place a decade ago, Reuters discusses. Austerity, but with growth. ECB President Mario Draghi commented on Wednesday that for eurozone nations fiscal discipline must be complemented with a "growth pact," but this doesn't mean that he is in support of loosening budget restrictions, reports the WSJ. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French Presidential candidate François Hollande took the bits that they liked in Draghi's comments, stating how they supported their (different) views. Markets: stocks are looking to consolidate recent gains as investors are buoyed by the global corporate earnings season and a belief that the Federal Reserve "has their back," according to the FT's Global Markets Overview. The dollar hit a three-week low against a basket of currencies after the FOMC meeting, according to Reuters. US futures are currently pointing to a move up at the market open. This entry was posted by Lisa Pollack on Thursday, April 26th, 2012 at 10:48 and is filed under Uncategorised.