Analysts agree that Ben Bernanke’s prepared testimony ahead of the House Financial Services Committee this morning was largely uneventful.

“You know Bernanke did not say very much, when there is an active debate as to whether weak new home sales or Bernanke’s testimony was moving markets more. Oddly the home sales data may have even won that contest,” wrote Alan Ruskin, chief international strategist at RBS.

So what hasn’t changed?

The Federal funds rate, as Mr Bernanke and everyone else at the Fed have stated repeatedly, is likely to remain low for an ‘extended period’, even after the discount rate – the rate at which banks borrow money directly from the Fed – rose by 25bp last week.

But his testimony to Congress wasn’t limited to his written statement. Among his comments during the question and answer period:

• Bernanke on the cost of interest rates on reserves: Unless I’m mistaken, this is the first time Mr Bernanke has addressed the cost of paying interest on bank reserves. He has said previously that it will likely be the most important means of tightening monetary policy when it’s time to begin tightening, but not estimated its cost. In the hearing, he said the cost would be ‘within tens of basis points’ of increasing the federal funds rate. “[It's] not a tremendous difference.”

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