Tag Archives: Janet Yellen

For the second time in nearly a decade, the Federal Reserve raised short-term interest rate, this time by .25 percent. The move was widely expected, as the futures markets had predicted in the last few weeks that there was a 100 percent probability that the Fed would raise rates. The bond market was not happy about Fed Chair Janet Yellen’s comments after the move. Bonds were caught off guard because the Fed changed their forecast for raising rates in 2017 from two increase to three. Although Yellen stated that any future moves would be data dependent, the market was caught …

  This has been a challenging year so far for the financial world. With stock indices down close to 20 percent and with oil dropping to its lowest level since 2003, mortgage rates have remained unexpectedly low. The economy reported a weak 4th quarter reading for GDP (Gross Domestic Product) and the February jobs report showed that job creation was below the pace of previous months. With world economies still showing signs of weakness, the Fed, which has stated that they would like to raise rates four times this year, have begun scratching their heads. Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen recently …