More important than US housing reports (house prices for December and new home sales for January) and Conference Board’s consumer confidence index for February (“where markets are looking for a bounce from the 14-month low of 58.6 up to 61.2”), TD Securities analysts point to Fed Bernanke’s semi-annual testimony to the Senate Banking Committee at 15:00 GMT as the main focus of the day. “This will be the first update since the Fed adopted open-ended QE, and there is little doubt that Congress will be interested in exactly how and when the Fed will end the program”, wrote analyst Annette Beacher. “Aside from Bernanke’s updated outlook on the economy (probably slightly more upbeat), the market will be looking for any further clarification on when QE will end and what specific triggers the Fed may use to gauge the end of the program”, she added.