Let's hope the Fed obliges with a 100 basis point rate cut at 6.15pm London time - everything else today seems to have erred on the positive side and pushed the market higher.
After yesterday's sell off, the FTSE 100 has risen 191.4 points to 5605.8, a 3.54% increase. Not only has the leading index regained almost all of yesterday's falls, it has recorded the biggest one-day percentage rise since February 12.
Goldman Sachs came in with better than expected results, Lehman Brothers did likewise, and as an added bonus, didn't go bust. So yesterday's whipping boys - the UK financials - led the way forward today. Man Group and Icap ended up nearly 9%, Alliance & Leicester was 39.7p higher at 515.5p and HBOS added 19.75p at 480.25p.
So is everything in the garden now rosy?
Here's some relatively positive analysis from Paul Niven, Head of Asset Allocation at F&C Investment:
"Markets will be volatile, but the re-pricing we have already seen leads us towards expecting a moderate rebound in equity markets over coming months. From this perspective, we would caution against panic and capitulation as such sentiment is already evident from the majority of market participants, and instead take degree of comfort that a variety of asset classes are already discounting a bearish outcome, with certain markets (such as equities) arguably already entering into the panic territory usually associated with a rebound in prices. Whilst one needs to exercise caution with risky asset weightings due to the cyclical slowdown we expect, there are several factors leading towards us taking a cautiously optimistic position."
And from Lehman Brothers' Ian Scott (yes, Lehman Brothers, which was hard hit yesterday on credit worries):
"Events in the past couple of days indicate that global equity markets have moved on from discounting the recessionary impact of lower earnings to considering the implications of a systemic reduction in the availability of credit to otherwise profitable businesses and creditworthy households. We think this likely represents the culmination of the current crisis in capital markets. The authorities, in this case the Fed, will continue to respond aggressively in such circumstances and we believe this response will eventually be seen as having drawn a line under the recent problems."
Not everyone is convinced.
Ryan Kneale, market analyst at City bookmakers BetsForTraders.com, said: "Looking at our sentiment Index, the current level of 26 shows that our clients are still betting against a market recovery. When the index has been this low in the past we have seen some big falls, could history be about to repeat itself? Only time will tell." Indeed.
