Stock Trading Volatile Around FOMC Statement; Markets End Flat (SPY, QQQQ, GLD, USO, TLT, UUP)

For much of the trading session, stocks traded in a tight range as traders prepared for today's FOMC statement at a little after 2 p.m. EST. Upon the release of that statement, however, things got a little wild. The Federal Reserve essentially said that the economy remains weak, and that they would be standing at the ready to provide "further accommodation" should the outlook continue to deteriorate. Interest rate policy was unchanged. The bulls got excited at the prospect of more quantitative easing (i.e. money printing), and the Dow was off to the races. At one point, the widely watched blue-chip index was up by more than 70 points after spending much of the session in negative territory. In the end, however, the bulls would be disappointed as most all of the gains evaporated in the last hour of trading. The Dow closed a little more than 7 points higher at 10,761. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF SPY fell 0.20% to $113.98. The S&P underperformed the Dow throughout the day. SPY volume, for literally the first day in recent memory, was heavy. Traders definitely showed up on FOMC day, and the fast and furious trading likely contributed to the volatility. Around 264 million SPY shares traded hands compared to a 3-month daily average of around 213.5 million. The PowerShares QQQ Trust ETF QQQQ, which tracks the performance of the Nasdaq 100, lost 0.02% to $48.82. Volume was heavy in the widely traded ETF. The quad-Q's largest component, Apple AAPL, rose 0.19% to $283.77. The stock hit an all time high today at $287.36, but closed well off of those levels. Gold was under pressure for much of the day before exploding higher in the wake of the FOMC statement to finish on its highs. COMEX gold futures gained $8.30 to $1,289.10. The SPDR Gold Trust ETF GLD made another new all time high today at $126.17. The GLD closed at $126.01. Volume was around 200% heavier than normal. Oil lagged today, which should give stock bulls at least some pause. Crude is very sensitive to changes in the economic outlook, and has not kept pace with the recent rise in the S&P. NYMEX crude futures fell 1.67% to $74.92. The United States Oil Fund ETF USO lost 1.71% to $32.65 on heavier than average volume. The USO has fallen almost 1% in the last month despite a massive rally in the equity market. Treasuries rallied hard during Tuesday's trading session on expectations that the Fed may begin to buy massive amount of U.S. debt to add liquidity to the economic system. The iShares Barclays 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF TLT jumped 1.39% to $103.68. The yield on the 10-Year fell 13.18 basis points to $2.5745. The U.S. Dollar was hammered in the wake of the FOMC statement. Everyone is expecting more QE, which will debase the dollar further. The PowerShares DB US Dollar Index Bullish ETF UUP, which tracks the performance of the dollar versus a basket of foreign currencies, lost 1.10% to $23.31. That is a big move. The widely watched EUR/USD pair is currently trading at $1.3264 as the Euro along with nearly every other major currency rallied against the greenback.