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pub_date:Incoming Fed chairman's comments this week spark two all-time highs on Wall Street, and a 24-point gain for STIJANET Yellen hasn't yet assumed the role of chairman of the US Federal Reserve but already she is wielding an influence on financial markets.mini storage Her comments during the week, widely interpreted as indicating that the Fed will continue pumping money into the system via its QE (quantitative easing) programme, have soothed worries that if the money printing stops, then stocks might actually have to rise or fall on fundamental or economic factors.Now, thanks to reassurances from the incoming Fed chair that the taps will remain open, it's "risk on" again - at least on Wall Street. US indices rose to two all-time highs on Wednesday and Thursday - first because Ms Yellen's thoughts were released ahead of her testimony to the Senate Banking Committee and then again when she actually stood before the committee. In response, the Straits Times Index (STI) gained 24 points or 0.8 per cent over the week, with the index yesterday rising 10.19 points to 3,201.27.At her confirmation hearing on Thursday, Ms Yellen said it was "imperative that (the Fed does) what (it) can to promote a very strong recovery". Ms Yellen did not sound happy with the current state of affairs, saying that "it's important not to remove support, especially when the recovery is fragile" and that the labour market was still performing "far short" of its potential.At the same time, she strongly set out the case for quantitative easing, saying that while the Federal Open Market Committee was monitoring potential negatives of the programmes, she judged that the benefits still outweighed the costs.Mind you, take a step back and look at the STI's performance for the year and the picture isn't anything to write home about. In almost 11 mo儲存ths, the index's gain is now a measly 34 points or 1.07 per cent. Compare this to a stunning 26 per cent rise in the S&P 500 so far in 2013, the main market benchmark for the country which originated the great financial crisis of 2008 and still remains mired in recession, and investors have an idea of how powerful money printing can be and where fund managers' priorities lie.Blue-chip underperformance aside, the slump in penny stocks that started last month with the crash in Asiasons Capital, Blumont and LionGold continued this week, manifesting itself in significantly reduced daily volume and only sporadic bursts of interest in low-priced issues. In yesterday's session, only 1.6 billion units worth $1.02 billion were traded, figures which at the height of the penny boom earlier this year could well have been chalked up by a single counter instead of the entire market.In the commodities segment, eyes were peeled on Olam International, which on Thursday reported a 5.7 per cent rise in profit for its first quarter ended Sept 30. In response, Olam's shares yesterday added 3.5 cents to $1.53 with 5.4 million units traded, even if the company's figures only stirred lukewarm interest from analysts.HSBC Global Research, for example, rated the stock "neutral'' with a $1.64 target. It said Olam was on the right trajectory to achieve the goal of turning free cash flow (FCF)-positive in FY2014. "However, turning FCF to equity positive will take longer, in our view. For that, overall gearing levels (including inventories) need to moderate further from the current 1.9x," said HSBC. "While below the self-imposed 2x limit, it is not sufficient to improve the comfort levels of investors, in our view."Nomura called a "buy" on Olam with a $2 target while OCBC Investment Research maintained a "hold" with a $1.45 fair value.迷你倉