MARKET RALLY COLLAPSES AFTER BERNANKE PULLS THE RUG OUT: Here's What You Need to Know

For once it wasn't about Greece, and there wasn't even much economic news. It was all Bernanke all the time.

But first, the scoreboard:

Dow: -83.59
NASDAQ: -18.76
S&P 500: -8.28

And, the top stories:

After Greece passed its big vote yesterday, the Europe stuff went on the backburner for a bit. But there was a bit of a "sell the news" tone all day. Europe was mostly lower, though not dramatically so. Nothing special happened in Asia overnight.

In the US, futures were lower going into the day, though they ended up coming back nicely in the mid-day. Again, not dramatic in one direction or another. The big news was on the corporate front: FedEx reported strong earnings. Nobody seemed much to care.

All day, the anticipation was BERNANKE BERNANKE BERNANKE. And he really didn't deliver too many surprises. The FOMC statement was predictably subdued. No change. Also as expected, the Fed downgraded its forecast for the economy. As a sidenote, BIll Gross came out and predicted QE3 to be unveiled at Jackson Hole. Just that mention caused markets to get a bounce.
It was during the press conference that news was really made: Bernanke basically said no QE3 is coming. How so? He insisted that deflation is slayed, and that job growth is better than it was last summer (pre-Jackson Hole). The conditions that lead to QE2 aren't there today in Bernanke's eyes. This is big. The market saw this: the dollar rallied, and equities sank.

MARKET RALLY COLLAPSES AFTER BERNANKE PULLS THE RUG OUT: Here's What You Need To Know