By Reuters Staff
1 Min Read
WASHINGTON, April 14 (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve will reduce its bond purchases before it commits to an interest rate increase, Fed chair Jerome Powell said on Wednesday.
“We will reach the time at which we will taper asset purchases when we have made substantial further progress towards our goals from last December,” Powell said in comments to the Economic Club of Washington. “That would in all likelihood be before, well before, the time we would consider raising interest rates. We have not voted on that order but that is the sense of the guidance.” A decision on whether the balance sheet would subsequently be allowed to shrink has not been made yet, Powell said. (Reporting by Howard Schneider Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
World stocks reach record peaks as US inflation fears subside
Most Asia-Pacific share indexes followed Wall Street higher, with Hong Kong s Hang Seng leading gains in the region, while benchmark US Treasury yields continued their decline, marking a fresh three-week low
Reuters | April 14, 2021 | Updated 11:50 IST
Global equity markets rose to a fresh record high on Wednesday as bond yields eased after data showed US inflation was not rising wildly. Most Asia-Pacific share indexes followed Wall Street higher, with Hong Kong s Hang Seng leading gains in the region, while benchmark US Treasury yields continued their decline, marking a fresh three-week low.
By Reuters Staff
1 Min Read
FILE PHOTO: Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Robert Kaplan speaks at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, U.S., October 11, 2019. REUTERS/Ann Saphir/File Photo
(Reuters) - Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Robert Kaplan said Wednesday it will be “a while” before the United States reaches full employment, even as he repeated his view that the Fed should begin to withdraw support from the economy sooner than most of his colleagues do.
The Fed should reduce its “extraordinary measures.at the first opportunity once we’ve reached, and are reaching, some of these benchmarks” including the weathering of the pandemic and progress toward full employment and 2% inflation, he said in a virtual appearance at the Woodlands Area Chamber of Commerce.
By Reuters Staff
2 Min Read
FILE PHOTO: Chairman of the Federal Reserve Jerome Powell listens during a Senate Banking Committee hearing on The Quarterly CARES Act Report to Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., December 1, 2020. Susan Walsh/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve will reduce its monthly bond purchases before it commits to an interest rate increase, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said on Wednesday, clarifying the order of monetary policy changes that are still months if not years in the future.
The Fed is currently buying $120 billion a month in government-issued and government-backed securities, and has pledged to continue doing that until the economy is more fully recovered.