By: Barbara Zigah

Following the widely expected announcement yesterday that Federal Reserve Bank does not intend to provide any further stimulus to the U.S. economy the U.S. Dollar gained broadly in Asian trading. According to Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, who fielded questions at a press conference following the announcement, confirmed that the central bank would not be pursuing another round of quantitative easing at this month’s conclusion of QE2, and they will be leaving the current low interest rate on hold at 0.25%.

With the news, equities in the Asian markets fell after three solid days of gains, and oil and precious metals slipped lower. As reported at 2:08 p.m. (JST) in Tokyo, the U.S. Dollar traded against the Japanese Yen at 80.46 Yen, a gain of 0.2%, while against the Euro is rallied to $1.4309, a gain of 0.3%. The U.S. Dollar Index, which gauges the greenback’s strength against other major currencies, gained 0.7% yesterday.

Most analysts are in agreement that the Fed’s stance was relatively downbeat and dovish, and their forecasts for growth have been revised downward, with expansion of up to 2.9% expected this year; April’s estimate predicted economic growth of up to 3.3%. The outlook for 2012 was also downwardly revised.