At the New York Stock Exchange, the neo-classical bastion of American capitalism, blue-smocked traders gathered around TVs to watch Fed Chair Janet Yellen explain the move.
A trader turned up the sound.
“Turn it down!” someone yelled.
Laughter.
“Maybe Janet Yellen is in the bathroom,” a trader quipped.
The hike was “almost anticlimactic,” said Peter Costa of Empire Executions and a NYSE governor.
Costa wasn’t even at his booth, where he executes trades. He was letting the market settle down before getting back in, he said.
Peter Tuchman of Quattro Securities, a fixture on the exchange floor for 30 years, agreed.
“It’s crazy,” he said. “There’s nine years of anticipation.”
Stephen Guilfoyle of Deep Value Execution Services savored the Fed’s grand moment.