espite a seemingly dovish tone, markets recoiled at remarks from Yellen, who said interest rate increases likely would start six months after the monthly bond-buying program ends. If the program winds down in the fall, that would put a rate hike in the spring of 2015, earlier than market expectations for the second half of the year. Moves widely anticipated by financial markets saw the Fed Open Market Committee vote to reduce the pace of its monthly asset purchase program by $10 billion to $55 billion—a continuing process in the market known as "tapering."