Welcome to Seeking Alpha's Wall Street Lunch, our afternoon update on today's market action news and analysis.

Good afternoon. Today is Wednesday, November 1st, and I'm your host Kim Khan.

This is a special Fed Decision episode of Wall Street Lunch.

No curveballs today. The Federal Open Market Committee kept rates on hold

in the range of 5.5%.

The market had priced in more than a 99% chance that the Fed would hold off for the second

meeting in a row.

The economic data has been solid recently and some cool inflation signs allowed the FOMC to allow the tightening to keep working through the system.

The statement was barely changed from the previous meeting, but did add a mention of tighter financial

conditions. That's likely a reference to the recent surge in longer treasure yields.

It also tweaked language to acknowledge stronger Q3 growth. In the markets the initial tone was

definitely bullish for equities and the two-year Treasury yield dropped 10 basis

points. Bond traders also seemed to tee off the Atlanta Fed's latest GDP now

forecast which sank to 1.2% for Q3 growth, down from 2.3% a week

before.

Atlanta's GDP now has gained some trendiness after a solid prediction of Q3 growth and ended up stealing a little

FOMC thunder as today's report was delayed until after the Fed decision. But once Fed Chairman

J. Powell took the mic, the tone in the markets changed.

Powell said the Fed isn't confident that has reached the stance for 2% inflation

or that financial conditions were restrictive enough.

He added that the question the Fed is asking is, should we hike more?

Pantheon macros Ian Shepperson says,

...