Stocks suffered a mid-week drop in part, due to a decline in energy stocks and increased confidence in the possibility of a December rate hike by the Federal Reserve. Fed Chair Janet Yellen said this morning that the U.S. economy is performing well and a December rate hike is a “live possibility,” depending on the data, but that “no decision at all has been made on that.”
Watch Yellen’s testimony below.
Yellen’s comments today largely repeated the Fed’s statement after a meeting last week that said the central bank will act if the economy and labor market continue to improve. The Fed has not raised its benchmark rate in nearly a decade and it has been near zero since the 2008 financial crisis.
Regarding regulation on big investment banks Yellen said:
“Large banks that teetered during the 2008 financial crisis are now more stable as a result of new capital and liquidity requirements, as well as Fed tests of their ability to withstand market turmoil, but the biggest banks continue to have substantial compliance and risk management issues that have undermined confidence in their risk management and controls and could have implications for financial stability.”
Meantime, CNBC Financial Editor Jeff Cox contemplates the real reasons why the Fed might raise interest rates. Watch below.
Here are the final numbers from Wednesday, 11/4/15 on Wall Street:
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 17,867.58 (-50.57/ -0.28%)
NASDAQ: 5,142.48 (-02.65/ -0.05%)
S&P 500: 2,102.31 (-7.48 / -0.35%)
