Some rather unexpected rational insight out of Bernanke responding to Patrick McHenry's question on whether and how much more QE the Fed can do:
- "I assume there is a theoretical limit on QE as the Fed can only buy TSYs and Agencies"
- "If the Fed owned too much TSYs and Agencies it would hurt the market"
And separately:
- "Higher Inflation Goal Doesn’t Have Lot of Fed Support"
But in closing:
- "We still have some capacity at this point."
Perhaps the market was expecting that the Fed would admit it can buy ETFs and REITs like the BOJ, or that it can sell vol into the single digits, as its New York Fed trading desk is rumored to be doing, but this is hardly the stamp of endorsement to buy any stock come hell or high water that the algos now expect out of the Fed.