11 Feb 2016
Yellen more dovish than yesterday - Nomura
Analysts at Nomura explained that in the second day of testimony, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen appeared before the Senate Banking Committee today to deliver the Fed’s semiannual Monetary Policy Report to Congress.
Key Quotes:
"Her prepared remarks were identical to the ones submitted yesterday, but the Q&A session gave us some additional insights into how Chair Yellen is thinking about recent developments for monetary policy.
She expanded on her discussion about negative interest rates. She stated that to her knowledge that there were no legal obstacles to negative rates, but she also expounded that the Committee is a long way away from considering using this as a monetary policy tool.
Moreover, she pushed back against the notion that we are close to a recession. Chair Yellen seemed a bit more concerned about financial conditions today than she did yesterday. It was a subtle difference, but it seems reasonable given the recent market movements around the world.
Last, she stated that signs of a pickup in wages are “tentative,” a bit more dovish than expected and one less argument to be more confident that inflation will rise. Overall, today’s developments were modestly more dovish than her remarks yesterday, but these differences are fundamentally marginal and do not alter our expectations for the path of monetary policy."
Key Quotes:
"Her prepared remarks were identical to the ones submitted yesterday, but the Q&A session gave us some additional insights into how Chair Yellen is thinking about recent developments for monetary policy.
She expanded on her discussion about negative interest rates. She stated that to her knowledge that there were no legal obstacles to negative rates, but she also expounded that the Committee is a long way away from considering using this as a monetary policy tool.
Moreover, she pushed back against the notion that we are close to a recession. Chair Yellen seemed a bit more concerned about financial conditions today than she did yesterday. It was a subtle difference, but it seems reasonable given the recent market movements around the world.
Last, she stated that signs of a pickup in wages are “tentative,” a bit more dovish than expected and one less argument to be more confident that inflation will rise. Overall, today’s developments were modestly more dovish than her remarks yesterday, but these differences are fundamentally marginal and do not alter our expectations for the path of monetary policy."