Did the Fed Just Start the Next Bull Market?

Stock market participants have waited for weeks to find out what the Federal Reserve would say about its monetary policy, and many analysts believed that what the Fed said could determine whether January's strong advances for the Nasdaq Composite (NASDAQINDEX: ^IXIC) and other major market benchmarks meant the beginning of a new bull market. The Fed's actions were largely what people expected, and that sent the Nasdaq higher by 2% even as the S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) and Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES: ^DJI) were a bit less upbeat in their reaction.