Early read of banks’ living wills shows progress: Fed’s Yellen

Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen testifies on Capitol Hill that there could be an interest-rate increase this year.

The FTSEurofirst 300 index of leading European shares rose 1.3 percent to a seven-week high of 1,607 points, continuing the upward momentum across Asian stock markets, while Spanish bond yields fell to a six-week low. The jobless rate for whites was 4.8 percent and for Hispanics was 6.6 percent.

“Yellen’s comment gave no major news and did not change the widely perceived view that the Fed will likely raise rates sometime this year”, said Takuya Takahashi, a strategist at Daiwa Securities in Tokyo.

The New Zealand dollar fell to its lowest level in over five years on Thursday after weaker-than-expected inflation data cemented expectations for a cut in interest rates as early as next week.

African-Americans were hardest hit racial group from the damage inflicted on the labor market by the Great Recession.

Last month, the FOMC indicated that the initial interest rate hike would be two-quarter point followed by a gradual pace of increases.

Stocks were mixed in early trading Wednesday as investors await testimony from Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen and a bailout vote in Greece.

“This leads us to conclude that most of gold’s declines based on a rate rise have already occurred, and that gold’s reaction to the rate hike – whenever it comes – and subsequent hikes, may be muted or short-lived”, Steel said in a note. Lawmakers in both the House and Senate have introduced legislation to rein in the Fed’s independence, measures that the central bank have warned could damage the independence the Fed needs to maintain its credibility with financial markets. A weak euro benefits Europe’s export-led economies. The company said it would buy Receptos (NasdaqGS: RCPT – news) to get a potential multibillion-dollar drug. She again acknowledged concerns over the situation in Greece and added China to her list of overseas risks.

Yellen said that she planned to turn over all the documents that have been requested once the investigations by the Department of Justice and the Fed’s inspector general are completed.

Like her predecessor, Ben S. Bernanke, who came under fire from members of Congress wanting to rein in the Fed, Yellen also has vigorously defended efforts to subject the central bank to a so-called audit of its policymaking, which she and others have argued would politicize the independent institution.

“The Fed’s clamor for independence is its underpinning for circumventing any sort of congressional accountability”, Representative Sean Duffy, Republican of Wisconsin, said at a Tuesday hearing on Fed transparency.