How financial markets performed during the Yellen Fed years

Fed Chair Janet Yellen leaves her post after four years this week, and during her tenure it was smooth sailing for stocks, with tech shares doubling and financial stocks springing back to life. The Nasdaq 100 (NASDAQ: .NDX) gained 97 percent and emerging market stocks soared, with the Argentine Merval (Buenos Aires Stock Exchange: .MERV) jumping nearly five times and the Brazilian Bovespa (Sao Paulo Stock Exchange: .BVSP) rising 80 percent. The Dow (Dow Jones Global Indexes: .DJI) is up 67 percent and the S&P 500 (INDEX: .SPX) gained 59 percent. Sources: Reuters, FactSet It was just over nine years ago that the Federal Reserve took the fed funds rate to zero during the financial crisis, but it was the Yellen Fed that brought it back, raising interest rates for the first time since the financial crisis in December 2015. The Fed has since hiked four more times, and during Yellen's tenure, the S&P financials, big beneficiaries of higher rates, rose 74 percent. The fed funds target rate range is currently 1.25 to 1.5 percent. The 2-year (U.S.: US2Y) Treasury yield, the one that most closely reflects Fed policy, has jumped from 0.34 percent to 2.14 percent. But Yellen also has kept a heavy dose of policy in place, and the 30-year (U.S.: US30Y) yield is actually lower at 2.96 percent from 3.62 percent. The 10-year (U.S.: US10Y) yield just recently rose above its 2.66 percent 2014 level and was at 2.74 percent Wednesday as Yellen held her final meeting as chair amid expectations for higher interest rates. Sources: Reuters, FactSet. Fed Chair Janet Yellen leaves her post after four years this week, and during her tenure it was smooth sailing for stocks, with tech shares doubling and financial stocks springing back to life. The Nasdaq 100 (NASDAQ: .NDX) gained 97 percent and emerging market stocks soared, with the Argentine Merval (Buenos Aires Stock Exchange: .MERV) jumping nearly five times and the Brazilian Bovespa (Sao Paulo Stock Exchange: .BVSP) rising 80 percent. The Dow (Dow Jones Global Indexes: .DJI) is up 67 percent and the S&P 500 (INDEX: .SPX) gained 59 percent. Sources: Reuters, FactSet It was just over nine years ago that the Federal Reserve took the fed funds rate to zero during the financial crisis, but it was the Yellen Fed that brought it back, raising interest rates for the first time since the financial crisis in December 2015. The Fed has since hiked four more times, and during Yellen's tenure, the S&P financials, big beneficiaries of higher rates, rose 74 percent. The fed funds target rate range is currently 1.25 to 1.5 percent. The 2-year (U.S.: US2Y) Treasury yield, the one that most closely reflects Fed policy, has jumped from 0.34 percent to 2.14 percent. But Yellen also has kept a heavy dose of policy in place, and the 30-year (U.S.: US30Y) yield is actually lower at 2.96 percent from 3.62 percent. The 10-year (U.S.: US10Y) yield just recently rose above its 2.66 percent 2014 level and was at 2.74 percent Wednesday as Yellen held her final meeting as chair amid expectations for higher interest rates. Sources: Reuters, FactSet .

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