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Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen promised a steady and consistent course forward, with less money-printing but continued low rates, in a speech that will be delivered to Congress late Tuesday morning.
 
The Federal Reserve Open Market Committee unanimously voted at the January meeting to reduce the pace of its monthly bond-buying program by another $10 billion to $65 billion a month.
 
Federal Reserve officials weighed whether it might be time to drop the notion that a 6.5 percent unemployment rate would be enough to consider raising rates, according to meeting minutes released Wednesday.
 
Jobless claims hit 348,000 last week; durable goods orders fall 1% in January
Economists in a consensus survey expected initial claims to dip by 1,000 to 335K. Meanwhile, January durable goods orders were expected to have fallen by 1.5 percent, a slower rate than December's 4.2 percent drop.
 
That's definitely good news for durable goods. Not sure how to digest the job claims. Will be interesting to see how Yellen's remarks add fuel to the fire.
 
FED POMO Bond buying is 4.5 Bil., today and 1.5 Bil., tomorrow. That gives banks plenty of liquidity to inflate Markets...
 
Gross domestic product expanded at a 2.4 percent annual rate, the Commerce Department said on Friday. That was down sharply from the 3.2 percent pace reported last month and the 4.1 percent logged in the third quarter. Economists polled by Reuters had expected growth would be cut to a 2.5 percent pace.
 
Short interest increased 2.62 percent to 14.26 billion shares in the first half of February, the highest level since June 2012, according to NYSE Euronext. Similarly, short interest at the Nasdaq also showed an increase of 2 percent, rising to 7.26 billion shares.
 
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 26,000 to a seasonally adjusted 323,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday. That was the lowest level since the end of November and the drop more than unwound the prior week's rise.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast first-time applications for jobless benefits falling to 338,000 in the week ended March 1. The four-week moving average for new claims, considered a better measure of underlying labor market conditions as it irons out week-to-week volatility, slipped 2,000 to 336,500.
 
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