Fed seen as more dovish than expected

2014-06-18 9

A careful Fed Chair Janet Yellen held the line at the press conference following the Federal Reserve policymakers' two-day meeting.

Making it clear- she is not defining when a rate hike will come:

SOUNDBITE: JANET YELLEN, CHAIR, U.S. FEDERAL RESERVE (ENGLISH) SAYING:

"There is no mechanical formula for what a considerable time means. The answer is it depends. It depends on how the economy progresses."

The Fed cut this year's forecast for U.S. economic growth to between 2.1 and 2.3 percent- from 2.9 percent- but kept forecasts for the next two years unchanged.

She also indicated she didn't consider stocks overvalued - pushing the S&P 500 to a new record high.

SOUNDBITE: JANET YELLEN, CHAIR, U.S. FEDERAL RESERVE (ENGLISH) SAYING:

"The committee doesn't try to gauge what is the right level of equity prices, but we do certainly monitor a number of different metrics that give us a feeling for where valuations are relative to things like earnings or