European stocks moved to a four-year high in response to the US Federal Reserves reduction of its benchmark lending rate by half a percentage point. National benchmarks went up in all 18 Western European markets the UK'S FTSE 100 rose 3.2 percent. Dirk Mueller exchange broker from IFC Brokers said: "An end to the crises just because of the rate cut is a little exaggerated. Problems continue to exist and they are probably bigger than anticipated otherwise Bernanke would not have lowered it by 50 basis points, looking at gold, oil and other commodities we are getting imported inflation and if you look ahead I see no reason for joy." He is not alone a number of observers believe the cut shows the Federal Reserve is not as confident as it appears.
