Markets Are Higher Everywhere On Huge Day For The Fed

This afternoon the FOMC will announce whether it plans to "taper" meaning slow the pace of asset purchases that it engages in through Quantitative Easing.

It may announce that today, or it may hold off until early next year, or it could do some permutation.

For example, it could taper, but at the same time it could say something really dovish in the language. Or it could not taper, but say something very definitive about how a January taper is likely. There are all kinds of possibilities.

In the meantime, the big datapoints out so far today are a very strong economic optimism report out of Germany and a wide trade gap out of Japan.