Federal interest rates remain the same for 6th time in a row.

Despite expectations that the Feds would lower their rates this time around, the Federal Reserve Rate remained the same at 5.25%.

The statement issued by the Federal Open Market Committee stated:

Recent indicators have been mixed and the adjustment in the housing sector is ongoing. Nevertheless, the economy seems likely to continue to expand at a moderate pace over coming quarters.

What the Feds failed to address was the subprime mortgage market issues, so we can expect to see more on that in the future. The fact that the subprime issue was ignored leads some analysts to believe that the overall impact of defaults on subprime loans is really not that big of an issue.

Could this mean that the press is making a mountain out of a molehill here with all the doom-and-gloom about the subprime mortgage market? Hard to say at this point, but it would appear that this issue is less prominent than we’ve been led to believe.

What we are seeing is a consolidation in the lending industry, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Many new lending companies opened when the real estate market was hot, so it’s no big surprise that not all of these can afford to stay open in a stabilizing market. We’ve already seen some consolidation in the real estate industry, where many small "boutique" real estate firms have been re-absorbed into the larger firms in their areas.

The stock market responded very favorably to this news as well, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average (Dow) posting its highest gain for the year at 154.7 points.

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