(As of 7:20am, PST)
A dovish speech by Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen
revived a relatively flat day of trading yesterday and it looks like her
remarks on the state of the economy have provided momentum to keep the buying
trend going into today. Stocks have opened mostly higher in early trading with
the Dow up 128 points and the S&P500 up 13. Fed Chair Yellen’s comments
softened previous public comments made by other Fed voting members who had
hinted at a rate increase as early as April. Yellen expanded the committee’s
benchmarks beyond a 2% inflation mark and an unemployment rate of below
6.5% here at home toward looking at concerns of the global economy as
part of the equation affecting whether the committee will raise rates or not.
Yellen’s comments will be the only market moving news for investors to digest
for the next couple of days as the economic calendar is fairly light. The next
wave of news will be the non-farm payrolls report on Friday followed by the
beginning of the earnings season which will kick into high gear the second full
week of April. Both the European and Asian markets were up impressively
overnight while the dollar took a hit from Yellen’s comments.
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