Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and his colleagues at the central bank issued a unanimous decision during Tuesday's meeting (Sep 16th) to leave its key rate at 2.0 percent for the third straight meeting. Before Monday's market meltdown, economists had widely expected the central bank to hold the Fed funds rate steady. But many analysts began to predict a rate cut of at least a quarter-percentage point after Wall Street suffered its worst day in seven years on Monday. After the Chapter 11 filing by Lehman Brothers, some analysts had been predicting a drop in the Fed rate. That didn't happen today but the door is still cracked open to the idea of a rate drop should economic indicators give the decision makers greater concerns of inflation. The fate of WAMU and AIG will most likely also play a part in future rate decisions as well.  Treasury bonds, which play a large part in influencing the direction of mortgage rates, ended down as was the yield initially (even though these two factors typically move in opposite directions) but lower bonds eventually sent the benchmark yield upward, rising from its lowest level since 2003.  Source: http://www.money.cnn.com