Benchmark US indices tread water as investors digested remarks from Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen in her address to the National Association for Business Economics (NABE) - Dow slipped -12-points or -0.05% to notch its first 4-day losing streak since June. A rebound in information technology stocks helped the broader S&P500 limp into positive territory with +0.01% gain. The NASDAQ added +0.15%. with Apple Inc (up +1.72%) gaining for the first session in five. In her keynote address Yellen acknowledged that the central bank "may have misjudged the strength of the labor market, the degree to which longer-run inflation expectations are consistent with our inflation objective, or even the fundamental forces driving inflation," however she reiterated her view belief that soft inflation was "probably temporary" and said that it “would be imprudent to keep monetary policy on hold until inflation is back to 2 percent.” The central bank Chair's comments saw the US dollar index firm ~0.4%. Also helping the greenback were fresh promises from President Trump around tax reform, saying his administration "will cut taxes tremendously for the middle class - not just a little bit, but tremendously".
