Wall Street on the water line after the speech of Yellen – Jornal de Negócios – Portugal

The major u.s. indices opened little changed on Thursday, November 17, after Janet Yellen have stated that the rise in interest rates should not be postponed, and it has been revealed that the consumer prices in the United States, increased for the third consecutive month.

The industrial index Dow Jones rises of 0.02% to 18.872,45 points, while the technological Nasdaq sum 0,07% to 5.298,20 points. Already the S&P500 values less than 0.1% to 2.177,48 points.

on Thursday, the chairman of the U.s. Federal Reserve, Janet Yellen has stressed that take too long to rise the interest could lead the Fed to have to do so abruptly in the future or create behaviors of excessive risks in the markets.

“If the Committee the Federal Open Market [the FOMC] to postpone hikes in the federal funds rate for too long, you may end up having to restrict the policy of relatively abrupt”, referred to in the notes to the hearing in the U.S. Congress that the form published on the website of the Edf. Yellen adds that “to keep the federal funds rate at the current level for too long may encourage excessive risk taking and, ultimately, compromising financial stability.”

The speech of Yellen – the first since Donald Trump won the elections of the United States, corroborates the belief of the market, which points to a probability of almost 100% of the Federal Reserve rising interest rates at the next meeting in December.

however, the president of the Fed stressed that the monetary authority continues to expect “progressive increases” in the federal funds rate over time “in order to achieve and maintain maximum employment and price stability”.

The data on the evolution of consumer prices, known this Thursday, may constitute a further argument for the rise in interest rates later this year. According to the Labor Department, consumer prices rose in October, the biggest increase in six months, mainly due to the costs of energy and rents.

The index of consumer prices increased by 0.4% in October after rising 0.3% in the previous month. In relation to October of 2015, consumer prices grew by 1.6% – the biggest rise year-on-year since October 2014.

The measure of inflation followed by the Fed – an index of the Department of Commerce that measures the expenditures with personal consumption – is currently at 1.7%, a little below the 2% target of the Fed, which is not reached since April 2012.

This Thursday, it was also revealed that applications for unemployment benefits in the U.s. fell to the lowest level since 1973. The orders fell by 19 thousand to 235 thousand in the week ended November 12.