Fed flags October end to bond buying

FOR the Federal Reserve, this was the point of no return: an extraordinary half-decade of stimulus and rate cuts has almost certainly come to an end.

In her latest policy statement and press conference, Janet Yellen, the chairwoman of the central bank, said the Fed's monetary stimulus will end with the purchase of a final US$15 billion of bonds in October, adding that most Fed members now expect to hike rates some time in 2015.

While the Fed once again promised that rates would remain at extraordinarily low levels for a "considerable time", two of the ten voting board members - Dallas Fed president Richard Fisher and Philadelphia Fed president Charles Plosser - dissented on the rate decision largely because they didn't want to make that promise.