Rates held steady Tuesday as Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen began two days of Congressional testimony. This morning Yellen told the Senate Banking Committee that the Fed considers it “unlikely that economic conditions will warrant an increase in the target range for the federal funds rate for at least the next couple of FOMC meetings”. The next two meetings are in March and April. The following meeting will be held June 16-17, presumably the earliest likely date for rate increases to begin. In other news, Consumer Confidence fell to 96.4, below the consensus forecast of 99.0. Results from today’s 2-year Treasury auction will be released at 1:00 PM.