Janet Yellen hints further rate rises on hold amid plunging markets

Wall Street unimpressed after Fed chief refuses to rule out return to modest increases should financial market turmoil blow over

The chair of the Federal Reserve has dropped the broadest of hints that it has put future US interest rate increases on hold following the plunge in global stock markets since the start of the year.

In testimony before Congress, Janet Yellen admitted that the selloff in shares on Wall Street had affected the growth prospects for the world's biggest economy and left investors in little doubt that the US central bank had no intention of following last December's increase in the cost of borrowing with a second increase in March.

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