This is taking Stock. I'm pim Fox. My co host Kathleen Hayes joining us now in the studio. Steve Matthews, Bloomberg US economy reporter, will be speaking with him having to do with Janet Yellen's testimony before Congress, and also Dave Wilson, Bloomberg Stocks commis. Dave, I want to begin with you and just give us an update on where stocks are trading and the gains that seemed to be at least holding on for the moment. But we're right around that exactly. I mean, we've kind of settled in.
It's almost like people kind of waiting. You know, we're a couple of days away from that vote on whether the UK stays in the European Union or not, so that gives people a reason to kind of step back. And it's not like when you go through the main industry groups in the SMP five hundred, you really see sort of any kind of overall tone to what's going on. Though I will point out phone companies and utilities are doing relatively well, and those are the more interest rate
sensitive areas of the market. Uh, you look what's down and it's sort of a grab bag healthcare. Uh, you know the consumer discretionary category, which is media companies, retailers and you name it, and raw material producers. So you know, it's not like you're really getting a whole lot of a message out of today's strating, except people kind of hanging on and waiting for things to unfold as the week progresses. Well. Uh, the bond cket actually halting its
recent sell off. It's pretty flat now taking some solace, it seems. From Janet Yellin's testimony to the Senate Banking Committee today it's a two day testimony. Today, she seemed to indicate that maybe beneficials are even a little more cautious about going to the next interest rate hike. Let's go to Steve Matthews. Now he joins us from our Atlanta Bloomberg News bureau where he is one of our
top Federal Reserve reporters. So Steve, our colleague Chris Condon, who wrote the story on Janney Allen's testimony, emphasized that Janet used the word weather a conditional word, not saying when the Fed would raise rates, but saying it depends on whether the economy improves or not. You know, Kathleen I totally agree with your analysis. Uh. The Yelling's testimony
today was was definitely on the dovish side. A couple of years ago when when she was being considered for the FED chairmanship, there was also taught that Larry Summers, the former Treasury Secretary, could be considered as FED chair And it turns out we we we we don't have Summers, but Yelling has adopted some of what Summers is saying
about secular stagnation. She believes the economy is stuck in a low growth rut and that we could be in a low growth, low product productivity regime for some period of time, and in that those conditions you're going to have of, you know, very low interest rates for a long period of time. And you know, that was kind of the takeaway she talked about in her prepared testimony. She can't kind of gave a nod out to prominent economists that she didn't mention believing that the growth outlook
is really dim. But that was an evident UH mentioned evidently referring to Larry Summers or to Robert Gordon, the Northwestern professor who has been a proponent of that same view. So it was very interesting, Kathleen. She also spoke specifically about the income of the meeting income of African American households, saying that that is still well below the median income of other US households. Is that also aimed at a
specific audience, that Congressional Budget Office maybe having a role there. Well, actually, that's a good point of the PM, that the FED isn't responsible but for the these income disparities, but certainly keeping the economy going and jobs growing is And she answered that, Steve, didn't she in answer to a question. Course, she's a labor market economist. She's very sympathetic to these things, maybe even more than some other FED chairs. What what's
the significance of that to you? Not there's a question, but how she answered it. Do we get any light UNFED policy. I'm not sure it means a lot for FED policy other than the fact that she is very worried about various groups. And she specifically said she was
worried about unemployment among African Americans, for example. And to the extent that you're worried about individual groups, I think that would say that you would err on the side of being easy as opposed to aggressive in terms of raising interest rates, but she made the larger point that uh, and she didn't quite put it this way, but she could have turned to the Congress and say, why are
you looking at me? It's not my issue, it's your issue, um, because it's really fiscal policy that deals with UH, job training and in the ability of people to get jobs. And she made the point that what's happening is you have more technology which is requiring more skills in the workforce, and globalization, and those are trends that Congress needs to address, not the Fed. Okay. Dave Wilson for The Stock Market,
did Janet Yellen answer their question today? Well, you look at the way that the trading is gone, and it's not like you can really take away sort of an overall direction based on what she had to say. I mean, SMP five basically fluctuated within an eight point range while she was speaking and answering questions. Went from the low of the day to the high of the day. It's just trying to keep creep back towards the high at this point, but nothing really conclusive. I mean, there's plenty
coming down the line. It's going to get investors attention, and that's why I've got you, Dave Wilson. Our stocks there to keep us on top of all of that, and our Steve Matthews, a regular on taking stock on Bloomberg Radio, but a reserve correspondent joining us from our Atlanta bureau today, I'm Kathleen Hayes. Along with Pim Fox, We're taking stock on Bloomberg Radio.