US stock futures declined as investors continued to weigh comments from Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen and awaited reports on jobless claims and existing home sales.

Yellen, speaking last night after the Federal Open Market Committee voted to taper its asset purchase programme by another $10bn a month to $55bn, signalled that the first rate hike could come six months after quantitative easing (QE) ends.

Bond purchases should come to an end in October or November if the Fed continues to taper at the same rate at each meeting.

Yesterday's press conference was Yellen's first since taking over as Chair in February. Some analysts think her remarks reflected her lack of experience.
IG Analyst, Chris Beauchamp, added: "Janet Yellen will be pondering over her performance last night, after she spooked markets with talk of an earlier-than-expected rise in US interest rates.

"Although the Fed's statement implied there would be a 'considerable' gap between the end of QE and the first rate hike, Yellen's definition of considerable as 'around six months' wasn't as long as some had hoped."

On today's agenda a report is expected to show initial jobless claims increased by 322,000 in the week to March 15th, compared to 315,000 a week earlier.

Another release is forecast to reveal sales of previously-owned homes dropped 0.4% month-on-month in February, easing from a 5.1% fall in January when results were blamed on poor weather.

Crimea tensions

Tensions remain high over the situation in Crimea after Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a treaty on Tuesday accepting the region as a sovereign state.

The treaty followed a referendum on Sunday which showed an overwhelming support for Crimea to leave Ukraine.

The European Union is meeting in Brussels today to discuss possible sanctions against Russia while United Nations Chief Ban Ki-moon is visiting Russian leaders in Moscow to urge a diplomatic solution to the crisis.

Guess, Lennar

Guess declined after forecasting earnings for fiscal-year 2015 that missed analysts' estimates.

Lennar Corp. advanced as the US homebuilder reported a rise in fiscal first-quarter net income that beat market forecasts.

Jabil edged higer after the maker of electronics for Apple and Cisco Systems estimated fiscal-year 2015 earnings ahead of consensus.

RD

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