London was closed for the August bank holiday Monday but stocks in the US moved higher following comments from Federal Reserve Chair, Janet Yellen. Her speech was more hawkish than expected and warned that if unemployment continued to fall faster than expected then markets had to be prepared for interest rates to rise. However, this comment alone does not address the real problem which is quality of jobs rather than quantity and the markets are aware that earnings are not improving in line with company profits. Of greater significance was the speech from Mario Draghi, president of the ECB, who appeared to make a critical step towards quantitative easing over concerns that eurozone deflation is a real possibility. The S&P500 index of leading US shares rose on this news, breaking the psychological barrier of 2000 points.
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Bank of England split vote on interest rate hike
Bank of England split vote on interest rate hike