Strong 'Bernanke Wind'

The U.S. Federal Reserve Board (FRB) cut the benchmark lending rate by 0.5 percent to 4.75 percent on Sept. 18. FRB also said it has cut the rediscount rate charged by the central bank to commercial banks by 0.5 percentage points to 5.25 percent.
The U.S. central bank, in a statement released on the day, said it reached the decision to cut the prime lending rate to preempt various negative factors arising from the collapse of the financial market to the economy and induce stable long-term growth.
The announcement of the rate cut boosted the Dow Jones index by 335.97 points or 2.51 percent to post 13,739.39 and the Nasdaq index jumped 70. points or 2.71 percent, at 2651.66 while S&P 500 index 43.13 points or 2.92 percent.
All Asian stock markets including Korea's made gains thanks to the good news from the United States. KOSPI Index rose 64.04 points or 3.48 percent at 1902.65 and stock markets in the rest of Asia, Japan, Singapore, and Hong Kong jumped more than 3 percent.
The Korean won's exchange rate with the dollar depreciated by 4 won to 926.7 won per dollar, on the day. nw

Chairman of U.S. Federal Reserve Board Ben Bernanke.