Investing.com - New Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said Tuesday that the central bank was likely to continue tapering its monthly bond-buying program in measured steps.
In prepared remarks released before her testimony to Congress later in the day, Fed Chair Yellen said that the central bank would taper the pace of its asset purchases at future meetings if the economy continued to improve as expected.
“I served on the Federal Open Market Committee as we formulated our current policy strategy and I strongly support that strategy,” Yellen said.
“Let me emphasize that I expect a great deal of continuity in the Federal Open Market Committee’s approach to monetary policy,” Yellen said in remarks prepared for a hearing of the House Financial Services Committee.
She added that the pace of the central bank’s bond purchases are not on a “preset course”, while reiterating that Fed plans to hold interest rates at zero “well past” the time the jobless rate falls below 6.5%.
Yellen will testify before lawmakers at 10 a.m. Eastern time.
Following Yellen’s comments, the U.S. dollar was lower against the euro, with EUR/USD easing up 0.16% to trade at 1.3667.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock future indices were higher. The Dow Jones Industrial Average futures rose 0.2%, S&P 500 futures pointed to a gain of 0.15%, while the Nasdaq 100 futures pointed to an increase of 0.2% at the open.