At its meeting, the Federal Reserve reaffirmed its pledge to keep interest rates low and opted to not take any new measures to bolster the economy, saying the economy has already been showing signs of "expanding moderately." The economy has shown some improvement in employment and consumer spending in recent weeks. However, the Fed cau-tioned at Tuesday’s meeting that the "housing sector remains depressed."

In reaffirming a pledge it first issued in August, the Fed said the federal funds rate -- which serves as a benchmark rate for many types of loans, including mortgages -- will remain near zero until mid-2013. The Fed said it will continue with plans to move $400 billion of its bond portfolio into longer-term securities, which ultimately could send long-term inter-est rates even lower.

Overall, the Fed said the economy has steadily been showing signs of improvement and is on track to post its strongest gains of the year in the final months of 2011. But the Fed said that the European debt crisis will continue to pose a major threat to recovery with "strains in global financial markets continue to pose significant downside risks."

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