Thought Of The Week Fed Stays Put, Corporate Earnings Report The Federal Reserve finished its two-day policy meeting on Thursday and expectedly did nothing on policy. Fed Chair Powell said it was not time to talk about scaling back on bond buying and acknowledged that “these one-time increases in prices are likely to have only transitory effects on inflation”. Not surprisingly, the status quo left stocks relatively flat, and the meeting was seen more as a message to market participants to sit back and observe as the economic recovery continues to unfold. Meanwhile, investors kept themselves busy with the earnings season as more than 50% of the S&P 500 has reported. Despite the strong average earnings growth and action under the surface, that did not translate to index-level moves since expectations were already high. S&P closed flat for the week. Asian stocks retreated Friday as China’s antitrust crackdown weighed...