Bernanke Seizes Day to Lower Bond Yields as Congress Shirks

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke’s flattening of bond yields may be just the push investors and companies need to take risks with their cash.

The Fed’s decision this week to keep its benchmark interest rate near zero through mid-2013 sent five-year Treasury yields as low as 0.82 percent, below the 2.21 percent two-year rate before the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in 2008. Lower returns on the safest investments will spur equities purchases, said David Kelly of JPMorgan Funds.