Wall Street at all time highs for fourth straight day, fuelled by Yellen
Wall Street was trading on hot air again on the back of Yellen's comments when she gave her "Humphrey-Hawkins" testimony before the Senate Banking Committee today with more to come tomorrow when she will make an appearance before the House Financial Services Committee.
- Fed's Yellen: Some policies being discussed in Washington may raise deficits or help productivity
- Fed's Yellen: Will wait to gain further clarity on economic policy changes
- Waiting too long to tighten would be unwise - Fed's J.Yellen
- More rate hikes may be appropriate in upcoming meetings - Fed's J.Yellen
- Fed's Yellen agrees with core principles of Trump's executive order on financial reform
The US dollar index was up 0.3% to a fresh three-week high on the back of her comments as US 10yr treasury yields jumped from 2.43% to 2.50% and 2yr yields jumped from 1.20% to 1.25% in reaction while the Fed fund futures firmed 1bp-4bp, mostly at the far dates, as noted by analysts at Westpac, "The April contract is now trading at 0.71% (which is 8.5bp above the current midpoint FFR of 0.625%, which implies around a 35% chance of a rate hike in March)."
U.S. benchmarks finished at all-time highs for a fourth straight day, again supported by a rally in the financial sector with Yellen supportive of the core principles of Trump's executive order on financial reform. Investors presume that Banks will benefit from the gradual interest rates rises coming into effect soon.
The S&P 500 finished 9.33 points, or 0.4%, higher to close at 2,337.58 with some of the major banking players such as J.P.Morgan Chase & Co. rose and the Bank of America Corp rallying between 1.6%- 2.8% respectively. Meanwhile, The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 92.25 points or 0.5%, to 20,504.41 while the Nasdaq Composite advanced 18.62 points or 0.% to 5,782.57.
US dollar index up for the fourth day in a row supported by Yellen