Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke gave a straightforward "Jackson Hole II" speech in Minneapolis on Thursday, offering no new clues about whether the Fed will push the action button at its next meeting in two weeks.

It was the central banker's first major speech since the Fed's annual symposium last month in Wyoming and comes amid growing market expectations that the Fed will take more measures to try to revive a nearly stalled U.S. economy.

But Bernanke's remarks, at a luncheon hosted by the Economics Club of Minnesota, were consistent with what he's been saying for some time. The Fed "has a range of tools" for monetary stimulus, he told the crowd of 800 businesspeople, "and we are prepared to employ these tools as appropriate to promote a stronger economic recovery in a context of price stability."

Bernanke steered clear of President Obama's jobs plan. He touched on familiar themes of late such as keeping fiscal policy supportive in the short run, and the long-term need to tackle the nation's huge budget deficit. He called the $1.2 trillion to $1.5 trillion in spending cuts the deficit supercommittee is charged with finding "just one step in the direction of sustainability."

Markets were hoping for more insight, "but obviously that didn't come," said Michael Hanson, senior U.S. economist for Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Hanson said he still thinks it's "quite likely" the Fed will act when officials meet Sept. 20-21.

Hanson, based in New York, flew to Minneapolis for the speech. "It's two weeks before the Fed meets in an unusual two-day meeting," Hanson said. "Obviously there was a lot of anticipation about what the Fed might say."

Hanson, like others, said Bernanke may have been even more restrained because of the growing division on the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), the policymaking arm of the Federal Reserve System.

The fact that the FOMC's September meeting was stretched from one to two days is unusual and significant, Fed watchers say.

"To extend it to two days suggests that we are at a significant turning point with respect to monetary policy," said Lynn Reaser, chief economist at Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego and immediate past president of the National Association of Business Economists. "It's a recognition that there is a very divided Federal Reserve at this point."

Seated at the head table with Bernanke on Thursday was Minneapolis Fed President Narayana Kocherlakota. He was one of three voting FOMC members who dissented from the committee's decision last month to hold the benchmark federal funds rate -- the rate banks charge each other for overnight loans -- near zero for two years.

When an attendee asked him how he views the dissension, Bernanke replied that he encourages debate.

"There's a reason it's a committee," he said. "If two people always agree, one of them is redundant."

He drew bigger laughs when someone asked him what he thought of actor Paul Giamatti's portrayal of him in the HBO movie "Too Big to Fail," based on the book about the 2008 financial meltdown.

"I didn't see that movie," Bernanke said. "I saw the original."

Bernanke did not outline the policy options that the Fed is considering. But he has outlined them before: buying up more longer-term securities; opening communication with investors and the public, and lowering the 0.25 percent interest rate on excess reserves that banks hold in the Federal Reserve System. Lowering the rate the Fed pays banks to zero could persuade them to put some of the money to work.

But the market seems to be tilting toward something called Operation Twist, after a program used in the 1960s. In Operation Twist, the Fed would sell shorter-term securities in its portfolio and buy longer-maturity securities, changing the asset mix but not growing the Fed's balance sheet. The goal would be to push longer-term borrowing costs down even further, trying to entice people sitting on parked cash to invest it.

That option is not seen as potent as the Fed's earlier quantitative easing programs. Since 2008, the Fed has bought $2.3 trillion worth of agency-guaranteed, mortgage-backed securities and U.S. Treasury bonds, aimed at bringing down longer-term interest rates. The latest round of asset purchases ended in June. Interest rates on the benchmark 10-year Treasury bond have been at record lows. On Thursday, it was 2 percent. Still, the low rates have done little to expand lending.

Many economists feel that there isn't much more the Fed can do to stimulate employment growth, although many also say that lowering longer-term interest rates could have some positive effect.

"Any of the remaining options that the Fed has will only have a very marginal effect," said Gregory Daco, principal U.S. economist at IHS Global Insight. "That's not to say they won't help the economy at the margin. [The Fed] still has a role to play."

Jennifer Bjorhus • 612-673-4683