The Federal Reserve has announced plans to continue its economic stimulus program indefinitely. Under a policy called “quantitative easing,” the Fed is spending $85 billion a month buying up Treasury and mortgage bonds in a bid to trigger economic growth. On Wednesday, Fed Chair Ben Bernanke said the unemployment rate remains too high despite some gains.

Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke: “Conditions in the job market today are still far from what all of us would like to see. Nevertheless, meaningful progress has been made in the year since we announced the asset purchase program. For example, the unemployment rate has fallen from 8.1 percent at the time of our announcement to 7.3 percent today. And about 2.3 million private sector jobs have been created over the same period.”

Bernanke’s announcement sparked a rally in Wall Street trading, with both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index closing at record highs.