Ed Yardeni on the New Fed Chairman
Ed Yardeni is chief investment strategist for Oak Associates, a mutual fund and money-management company. This comment was contained in an e-mail to clients and others on Tuesday morning.
"The market is drifting. Investors are desperately seeking some leadership as both Energy and Materials have stumbled recently. On Wednesday, investors will start assessing Ben Bernanke's leadership of the Fed. From what I've read of his speeches, I am impressed with the breadth of his knowledge, his intellectual powers, and his open-minded pragmatism. In many ways, he reminds me of the former Fed chairman. I think investors will also become increasingly impressed as they see him in action. The markets may be anticipating that Bernanke will continue Greenspan's measured raising of the federal funds rate on a de facto basis. That's my view: I expect a 25 basis-points hike in the federal funds rate following each of the next two FOMC meetings, on March 28 and May 10."

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