Wiggle room for possible Fed rate surprises

Washington

THE Federal Reserve has built in some wiggle room for rate surprises. The US central bank now puts "patience" above needing "considerable time" for changing monetary policy. It suggests chairwoman Janet Yellen is focusing more on data than anything else. That could stoke interpretive disagreements on the committee - but also spark unexpected hikes.

It threw stock investors for a while. The S&P 500 initially jumped one per cent when the Fed released its statement. Ms Yellen's comments later that a rate increase could come as soon as April wiped those gains out - before investors shrugged that off, too.