‘Nuance’ is defined as a subtle difference in or shade of meaning, expression or sound. It’s safe to say a copy of the definition of ‘nuance’ was not distributed to members of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) in advance of today’s statement release.

Yellen et al knew going into this meeting that skittish financial markets and a weakening dollar dictated that they be more careful than they’ve ever been in choosing their words carefully. And yet they opted for the verbal bull in a China shop route knowing they’re engaged in a full scale stealth currency war with the People’s Bank of China (PBOC).

Despite oil closing up on the day, stocks raced off script with the Standard & Poor’s 500 closing down 1.1 percent, giving back the bulk of yesterday’s gains. So much for that ‘stocks and oil move in perfect lockstep’ relationship that’s been firmly in place since the start of the year.

What spooked the markets is both what the Fed did and did not change in the statement’s language.

Yes, they nodded to global financial strains. Yes, the applauded the recent strong headline gains in nonfarm payrolls (though they clearly were not provided a copy of the household report which showed a whopping three percent of job gains went to those ages 25-55). The FOMC even expanded its verbiage to recognize a fresh source of weakness in the economy, as in the inventory businesses no longer see fit to build.

But we were all expecting an acknowledgment of the obvious.

Less anticipated was the adamancy of Committee members that inflation would hit their stated goal of “two percent over the medium term as the transitory effects of declines in energy and import prices dissipate and the labor market strengthens further.”

‘Strengthens further?’ Anyone bother to share the last few weekly jobless claims reports with monetary policymakers?

As for inflation’s prospects, a year and a half into crashing oil prices, the FOMC’s use of the word ‘transitory’ leads one to wonder if they are stuck in some space age time warp. Or maybe they declared it Opposite Day but failed to share that with the rest of us.