Wall Street had pushed higher for most of the session after Monday's rout on hopes the central bank would come to the markets' rescue, as it has in the past.However, the central bank's options appeared to be limited because the current crisis is not liquidity-driven, as it was in 2008. The Fed said it would keep its existing monetary stimulus on track and offered a long two-year timeframe for rates to stay low. But it offered no new monetary initiatives.The Fed said US economic growth was proving considerably weaker than expected, suggesting inflation, which has already moderated recently, will remain contained for the foreseeable future."This is a lame way for the Fed to try to help the marketplace," said Cary Leahey, managing director and senior economist at Decision Economics in New York."The market needs a sense that the Fed is willing to do more today, rather than merely say that they're not going to tighten in mid-2012 versus 2013. Nobody really cares."Safe-haven investments remained in favor. The Swiss franc hit a fresh record high against the euro and 30-year Treasury bond prices turned positive, erasing previous losses. The 30-year bond last traded up 78/32 in price with a yield of 3.53 percent."The statement was extremely negative in its outlook on the economy," said Omer Esiner, chief market analyst at Commonwealth Foreign Exchange in Washington."This is definitely a negative for risk appetite and that's why we're seeing the yen and Swiss franc at new highs."The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 65.24 points, or 0.60 percent, at 10,875.09. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 13.10 points, or 1.17 percent, at 1,132.56. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 37.95 points, or 1.61 percent, at 2,395.64.Europe's main stock markets on Tuesday ended days of sharp declines with London's FTSE-100 index up 1.89 percent to 5,164.92 points, and in Paris the CAC-40 gained 1.63 percent to 3,176.19 points.In Frankfurt the DAX ended nearly flat with a drop of 0.10 percent to 5,917.08 points.In Madrid, the Ibex-35 slipped 0.36 percent and in Milan, the FTSE MIB rose 0.52 percent.In Athens the Athex index closed up by 0.19 percent, in Lisbon the PSI-20 fell by 0.99 percent,In Amsterdam, the AEX index rose 1.30 percent, in Brussels the Bel-20 gained 2.80 percent and in Switzerland the SMI index rose 0.60 percent.However, in Asia, South Korea's Kospi was off 3.6 percent at 1,801.35 after plummeting nearly 10 percent in the morning. Hong Kong's Hang Seng, which fell as much as 7 percent, was down 2.9 percent at 19,890.85 and Japan's Nikkei 225 stock average pulled back to a fall of 1.7 percent.Australia's S&P/ASX 200 index moved into positive territory — up 1.2 percent at 4,034.80 — and mainland China's key indexes eked out modest gains.Oil prices dropped within minutes after the statement was released. Gold, considered a safe haven when other investments are tumultuous, rose again to $1,773.60 per ounce, up from its $1,713.20 closing price on Monday."The market could come off from here, but it's headed in a northerly direction," ANZ head of metal sales Peter Hillyard said. "From where we are now, you might think we could see some sort of pull-back. But I'm talking about a momentary thing, a pull-back like the loading of a gun, which then fires away."Gold priced in euros hit an all-time peak above 1,250 euros an ounce and was set for its biggest two-day rally since May 2010, when the euro zone debt crisis first flared. The euro fell to a record low against the Swiss franc for a third straight day.Gold in sterling and yen also hit records.Technically, gold appeared well supported for further gains, albeit after a pullback."We're well above all the daily-moving averages; the 21; the 55; the 100; and the 200. So that suggests upside momentum," said Eric Viloria, senior technical strategist for at forex.com."But it looks like gold's little exhausted in this area even if the long-term trend still remains upward. We'll be looking for a potential correction. But I'll also view any correction as an opportunity to buy further."Boosting the stock market isn't one of the Fed's jobs, but that hasn't stopped investors from parsing every word of the statements made by the Fed and its chairman, Ben Bernanke.The Fed's mandate is to keep prices stable and promote low unemployment, not boost stocks. But a stock dive after Fed comments has happened before. On June 3, the stock market suffered a late-day dive when Bernanke spoke in public at a conference. Investors said they were looking for a hint of new plans to spur economic growth. When that didn't come, all three major indexes sank.After Bernanke outlined the plan for a second round of quantitative easing in August 2010, the S&P 500 index gained 28 percent over eight months. Investors pointed to that rebound as evidence that quantitative easing worked — and so did Bernanke. This sentiment led some people to believe that if stocks fall too far, the Fed would come to the rescue.Europe's top central banker says the bank's "unconventional" moves to buy euro zone government bonds are aimed at restoring confidence to a financial system shaken by the worst crisis since World War II.Meanwhile, European Central Bank Chairman Jean-Claude Trichet says the bank "is in the secondary market" for eurozone bonds, but he said details on which bonds and how much of them the bank bought will only be disclosed on Monday.Trichet spoke in an interview on French radio station Europe 1 Tuesday. Trichet declined to say how long the bank would continue buying bonds in the secondary market, insisting that it was up to governments to take over the job "as rapidly as possible."World oil prices hit multi-month lows on Tuesday, hit by global economic fears, but rebounded in afternoon deals.In early deals, New York's main contract, West Texas Intermediate light, sweet crude for delivery in September, plunged in Asian deals to $75.71 a barrel — the lowest level since September 29, 2010.And Brent North Sea crude for September dived as low as $98.74 a barrel, hitting a level last seen on February 8.However, in late afternoon London deals, Brent oil stood at $104.62 per barrel, up 88 cents from Monday's closing level. New York crude wiped out its losses to trade at $82.08, up 78 cents.The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries lowered its official predictions for 2011 and 2012 crude oil demand, citing concerns for the economic health of developed countries.OPEC says world demand for oil will grow this year and next despite signs that the tepid international economic recovery is running out steam.OPEC’s monthly forecast revises demand growth slightly downward for both years.But it predicts that the world’s appetite for crude will show an increase of a daily 1.2 million barrels this year over last year and 1.3 million barrels a day in 2012 compared to this year.Tuesday’s report says that any significant growth in demand will likely mainly come from China, India, the Middle East and Latin America because of economic uncertainties in the US, the EU and other industrialized nations.Overall, world oil demand is expected to average 89.4 million barrels a day next year, says the report.