Janet Yellen set the ball rolling again. In a speech at the end of the market day at the University of Massachusetts, the Federal Reserve chair said that an interest-rate hike would probably be appropriate "sometime later this year" but cautioned that the decision still depends on economic data.
Wall Street responded immediately, with the dollar shooting up against a basket of currencies. The euro fell about 0.5 percent to $1.1174 from around $1.1230 while dollar-yen rose to around 120.27, from around 120.00 before Yellen's remarks.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 0.5 percent and the S&P 500 eased 0.3 percent. The Nasdaq Composite sliced off half its losses in the afternoon trading session to finish 0.4 percent lower.
According to Cynthia Jane Kalasopatan of Singapore's Mizuho Bank, "Our view for a December rate hike has not changed. Overall, we acknowledge that some caution prevail amid China's wobbles and a strong but U.S. data releases continue to point to a broad recovery picture. With no major data releases or events, Fed's policy outlook may be the key driver in markets today."
Asian Stocks Down
Asian stocks followed Wall Street’s lead dropping slightly in Friday trading. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.4 percent, on track for a weekly loss of nearly 5 percent.
Australian shares also fell 0.4 percent, and Japan's Nikkei stock index erased a rise of over 1 percent and was 0.1 percent lower at the end of morning trade, poised to lose 2.8 percent in a holiday-shortened two-day trading week.