“Stocks were at session highs on Wednesday, July 12, as congressional testimony from Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen soothed fears of a central bank moving too fast,” Keris Alison Lahiff reports for TheStreet. “The Dow hit an intraday record on Wednesday, superseding the high set on July 5”
“In prepared testimony before Congress, Yellen reiterated that rate increases would be gradual. Like Fed Gov. Lael Brainard, Yellen does not expect rates will have to rise by too much to reach neutral,” Lahiff reports. “Also in her testimony, Yellen said that the central bank will likely begin unwinding its $4.5 trillion balance sheet this year, while closely monitoring low-inflation trends.”
“On inflation, Yellen said recent weak inflation trends were tied to ‘a few unusual reductions in certain categories of prices’ and that the Fed was ‘carefully monitoring’ incoming data,” Lahiff reports. “No Fed monthly meeting this year has chances greater than 50% of seeing another rate hike from the central bank. The closest, the December meeting, has a 0.25% interest rate increase at a 47.3% likelihood, according to CME Group fed funds futures. ”
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MacDailyNews Take: All eyes will be on Apple on August 1st as the company reveals Q317 earnings and Q417 (holiday quarter) guidance after the closing bell.
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Apple to release Q317 earnings, webcast live conference call on August 1st – July 6, 2017