17 Mar 2017 (AFR) – Markets rally as Fed signals no risk to liquidity supplies – Yellen sends Wall Street signal to party on

(17 March 2017, AFR, p31, by Karen Maley)

‘If the job of the US Federal Reserve, as former chair William Martin once said, is “to take away the punch bowl just when the party gets going”, Janet Yellen is proving to be a genial and unusually lenient host. Bond and equity markets rallied on Wednesday night as the Fed chief signalled she wasn’t in any hurry to take away the key lubricants for financial markets: ultra-low interest rates and a swollen Fed balance sheet. Instead, she wanted to encourage investors to consume more responsibly. As it raised interest rates for only the third time since the financial crisis, the Fed continued to stress that mood-enhancing monetary stimulus would continue to flow.’

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