Here comes the Fed ...

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janet yellen

REUTERS/Gary Cameron

U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen.

Here it is.

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The Federal Reserve's Federal Open Market Committee is expected to release its latest monetary policy decision at the top of the hour.

Expectations are for the Fed to do nothing, keeping the benchmark interest rate pegged between 0% and 0.25% where it's been since December 2008.

The Fed has not raised rates since July 2006.

Following this statement there is not expected to be a press conference with Fed chair Janet Yellen, and so all we have to go on is the statement itself, to which not that many changes are expected.

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Basically, all the market gets to do is a little bit of close reading.

Earlier on Wednesday, Bloomberg economist Carl Riccadonna noted that a key change to look for in the statement is whether the Fed sees risks to the economy and labor market as "balanced" rather than "nearly balanced."

And so that is the kind of parsing we're looking for this afternoon.

Ahead of the Fed statement, stocks were higher, bonds were a lower, and oil was having its best day in a month.

We'll be back with the full statement when it drops.

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