MORNING BUSINESS MINUTE, WEDS., MAR. 29, 2006

As expected, the Federal Open Market Committee -- chaired for the first time by Ben Bernanke -- hiked the overnight lending rate a quarter point to %4.75. Perhaps unexpected? The pessimistic view of the economy we saw in the policy statement. The fed expects to see even more interest rate hikes, which left investors decidedly non-plussed. We saw the Dow lose -95.57 (-0.85%) to close at 11,154.54. The NASDAQ lost -11.12 (0.48%) to finish at 2,304.46. The S&P 500 lost -8.38 (-0.64%) to close at 1,293.23. Local stocks posted mostly negative figures. Tyson Foods (TSN) added +0.73% to close at $13.85. JB Hunt (JBHT) added +0.63% to close at $22.24. Acxiom (ACXM) lost -1.40% to close at $26.08. Wal-Mart (WMT) lost -0.42% to finish at $47.75 and AllTel (AT) lost -0.09% to finish at $64.24. In terms of economic figures, we have just one today -- crude oil inventories for last week. We`ll have one -- sort of interesting -- earnings number today from Woolworths. Overseas last night in Asia, the Nikkei gained +131.05 (%0.8) to reach 16,821.29 at the mid-day break in Tokyo. The broader Topix added +9.98 (+0.6%) to reach 1,702.67. Back in the U.S., in extended hours trading, the NASDAQ 100 Afterhours Indicator rose +0.61 (+0.04%) to close the night at 1,673.64.