Cub journalists are taught that “burying the lede” is a cardinal sin. The most important news in a story must be in the first sentence, not buried at the bottom. The market response to yesterday’s communique from the Federal Reserve’s open market committee was that chairman Ben Bernanke had done just that. Had he?

On the surface, the statement - more important than the decision to keep the Fed Funds rate at 5.25 per cent, which was expected - is hawkish. Core inflation was “somewhat elevated” (in January readings had “improved modestly”). Inflation is now the FOMC’s “predominant concern” (whereas in January it merely said that “some inflation risks remain”). This was balanced by the removal of January’s reference to “somewhat firmer economic growth,” but there was nothing to signal an imminent rate cut.