Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke finished a 2-day mid-summer update this afternoon. The key points that I pulled from the discussions were the following.

• The Fed is confident that inflation is under control, which may lead to a pause in rate hikes in the near future. It was reiterated that they will base rate decisions on economic data, but the overall tone was in favor of a potential pause.
• The Fed understands the importance of the lag between rate hikes and their impact on inflation and the economy. The lag has been a major topic of discussion amongst economist, and it was comforting to hear Chairman Bernanke comment on the fact they are taking the lag into consideration when decision making.
• Chairman Bernanke expects the economy to continue growing at a steady pace. He does not see a recession in the future, but stated that he is not willing to rule that out.  The man has to cover his butt in case the economy turns against him.  I can respect that.
• Bernanke expects real wages to increase, providing productivity remains strong this increase should not adversely affect inflation.

Overall I feel this Q&A session was positive in regard to the future of the US economy. He touched on several other points, but the info I relayed above was most important to me in relation to the US stock market.

Andy Swan is co-founder and head trader for DaytradeTeam.com.  To get all of Andy's day trading, swing trading, and options trading alerts in real time, subscribe to a one-week, all-inclusive trial membership to DaytradeTeam by clicking here.