360 Degrees of the FOMC

Editor's note: In this edition of "360 Degrees," Jim Cramer, Aaron Task, David Merkel, Liz Rappaport, Dan Fitzpatrick, Robert Marcin, Rev Shark and Tony Crescenzi tackle the latest Fed statement.

TheStreet.com has always believed that offering a wide variety of opinions and viewpoints -- rather than a monolithic "house view" -- helps readers make better-informed investment decisions. In that spirit, we bring you "360 Degrees," a feature that takes advantage of our varied stable of RealMoney contributors, who offer analysis of stocks and the markets from all angles.

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No Time to Panic, Just Time to Buy
By Jim Cramer
5/9/07 3:32 PM EDT

Got it wrong; didn't matter. No, I am not talking about Cisco(CSCO Quote) where I got it wrong and it did matter. I am talking about how I believed the Fed would ease this month because of the glaring problems in homes, autos (hey, even Toyota's(TM Quote) hurting) and retail.

Nah. The Fed governors are going to wait until the micro goes to the macro, they are going to wait until it is too late and the big quilt of data gets put together for them, which will smother the strength that is left in the economy.

And it didn't matter. This statement to me was, "Play on, nothing's bad, nothing's good." It was a recognition that things aren't as hot as they have been, but nothing more. It's a "pay no attention to the men behind the curtain" statement that now has freed people to say "the big bad event is over" so we can party again.

In other words: All's fine.

And if all is fine, we don't need the Fed to go higher, yet. Because while there is some inflation and a lesser amount of growth, it's no time to panic, just time to buy.

At the time of publication, Cramer was long Toyota Motors.

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Federal Open Market Committee
By Aaron Task
5/9/07 2:16 PM EDT

As was universally expected, the Fed left rates unchanged at its policy meeting today.

Accompanying statement: "Economic growth slowed in the first part of this year and the adjustment in the housing sector is ongoing. Nevertheless, the economy seems likely to expand at a moderate pace over coming quarters.

Core inflation remains somewhat elevated. Although inflation pressures seem likely to moderate over time, the high level of resource utilization has the potential to sustain those pressures.

In these circumstances, the Committee's predominant policy concern remains the risk that inflation will fail to moderate as expected. Future policy adjustments will depend on the evolution of the outlook for both inflation and economic growth, as implied by incoming information."

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FOMC: Free Our Markets, C'mon!
David Merkel
5/9/07 2:17 PM EDT

The Federal Open Market Committee left the fed funds target unchanged. The vote was unanimous.

The growth risk assessment was left at data dependent.

The prices risk assessment was left at inflation risk.

Overall, tone similar; core inflation seems high to the Fed; current policy and future changes to it should resolve all economic problems.

The 10-year Treasury yield was up 1.5 basis points in yield after two minutes. The S&P 500 was down 25 basis points.

We now return you to our regularly scheduled programming.

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Fed Says 'Ditto'
By Liz Rappaport
5/9/07 2:24 PM EDT

The Fed essentially repeated the March Federal Open Market Committee statement that gave the central bank slightly more flexibility to hike or cut depending on the data's direction. Not much of a reaction in the market, but clearly bullish traders would have loved to see Bernanke tip his hand to a more dovish bent. Didn't happen. No big deal. Back to buyouts.

The Fed changed its characterization of economic growth to say "Economic growth slowed in the first part of this year and the adjustment in the housing sector is ongoing," from March's statement, "Recent indicators have been mixed and the adjustment in the housing sector is ongoing."

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