Hawkish comments by US Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen on Wednesday and a European Central Bank interest rate announcement at 2:45pm made for anxious markets on Thursday morning.Yellen said in a speech to the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco she expected the US central bank’s benchmark rate to rise to 2.9% by the end of 2019 — substantially higher than its current 0.75% upper limit.Responding to President-elect Donald Trump’s accusation that Yellen was "highly political" and held interest rates low to benefit President Barack Obama, her speech stressed the importance of keeping central banks nonpartisan and free from short-term populist pressure.ECB president Mario Draghi is not expected to announce any changes at the central bank’s first monetary policy meeting for 2017. But with inflation picking up in Germany and other eurozone countries, Draghi is expected to give some indication of when the ECB will start tightening its money tap.A First National Bank poll of consumers don...
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