Financials Up After Yellen Speech - Financials Roundup

Banks, lenders and other financial companies rose after Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen gave a speech in Jackson Hole, Wyo. While giving no hints as to the central bank's policy plans, Ms. Yellen gave a robust defense of the central bank's tightening of financial regulations in response to the financial crisis. President Donald Trump and his financial advisers have criticized the measures championed by Ms. Yellen, and one of those advisers, Gary Cohn, may have seen his odds of succeeding her in February increase during the speech. Ms. Yellen's "passionate defense of the postcrisis tightening of financial regulation isn't going to go down particularly well at the White House," and could boost Mr. Cohn's chances of being named Fed chairman, said Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist at Capital Economics. The most revealing comment on the subject of interest rates came not from Ms. Yellen's widely anticipated speech, but from Fed Bank of Dallas President Robert Kaplan, who told CNBC television that, while a third rate increase this year remains possible, it behoves the central bank to be "patient."

-Rob Curran, rob.curran@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 25, 2017 16:44 ET (20:44 GMT)