Monday’s Mid-Day Movers: 3 Stories Driving Markets

The markets started the day lower, and lower they remain. Gloomy economic data from China and the confusing fallout from the sequester have pulled down all three major indices.

At 13:30 p.m.: DJIA: -0.09%, S&P 500: +0.01%, NASDAQ: 0.00%.

Here are three stories moving markets on Wednesday afternoon:

1) “At present, I view the balance of risks as still calling for a highly accommodative monetary policy to support a stronger recovery and more-rapid growth in employment,” concluded Janet Yellen, vice chairman of the Federal Reserve, in a speech she delivered to the National Association for Business Economics Policy Conference on Monday. The Fed’s second in command supported statements made by Chairman Ben Bernanke last week, arguing that the benefits of the Fed’s easy-money policy outweigh the potential risks.

Of course, critics disagree, and a $3+ trillion balance sheet growing at a rate of $85 billion every month is, at best, controversial. Nobody is looking forward to unwinding that monster, and nobody is exactly sure how it will get done or what will happen during or after the process, but the FOMC seems to be in agreement that stimulating broad economic recovery through the current policy is the best course forward.