90 seconds at 9 am: US may reconsider taper; RBS loses big, announces cuts; Europe stocks fall on Ukraine tension; NZ$1 = US$0.838 TWI = 78.77

Here's my summary of the key news overnight in 90 seconds at 9 am, including news the US may not yet be turning its back on quantatative easing.

Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen has said US central bank might yet reconsider continuing to “taper” its accommodative monetary policy if there’s a significant change in the outlook for the economy.

Appearing before the Senate Banking Committee Yellen said the unseasonably cold weather in the US had undoubtedly played a part in recent softer economic data and in the weeks ahead the Fed would be looking to get a firmer handle on exactly how much of that softer data was due to the weather and how much, if any might be due to a softer outlook. But she said for now the intention is for the Fed to keep trimming its asset purchases at a measured pace.

US. stocks climbed slightly after the comments with the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index and the Dow Jones both adding around 0.2 percent. Gold was up and oil was down.

Royal Bank of Scotland posted a net loss of £9 billion for the 2013 year as the performance was dragged down by more than £12 billion worth of impairments and legal costs.

It was the group’s biggest loss since it was bailed out by the British Government in 2008. The stock fell more than 7.7 percent. RBS announced a plan to cut around 5 billion pounds in costs over the next four years in a move to try and get the public on side, however, its also doled out £576 million pounds in bonuses to bankers, though in fairness that’s down from £679 million pounds the year before. Chief executive Ross McEwan says the bank needs to keep its staff engaged. He also confirmed that RBS is "the least-trusted company in the least-trusted sector of the economy".

European stocks declined for a second day as tension escalated in the Crimea, following Ukraine’s change of government. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index declined 0.2%.
In a significant ramping up of the tension in Ukraine, armed men seized the parliament in Russian-friendly Crimea region and raised the Russian flag, alarming  the new rulers in Kiev.

Closer to home today we've got monthly building consents figures out, as well as the ANZ's  latest Business Outlook survey and the Reserve Bank will have a month-end dump of statistics, including latest sector credit figures.

The NZ dollar's looking strong today after much positive economic news yesterday. We start today at 83.8 US cents, 93.5 Australian cents and the Trade weighted index is at 78.77.

If you want to catch up with all the changes yesterday, we have an update here.

The easiest place to stay up with today's event risk is by following our Economic Calendar here »