Here's What to Watch in Janet Yellen's Speech on Thursday

Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen will deliver a speech at the University of Massachusetts - Amherst on Thursday evening. Yellen is expected to discuss inflation – one of the economic data points that has not been cooperating with the Fed. The central bank’s preferred inflation gauge – the personal consumption expenditure price index – rose just 1.2 percent over the past year on a core basis. The Fed’s target is 2 percent. Yellen is likely to reiterate the transitory factors keeping inflation down, such as low oil prices. Yellen’s speech comes just one week after the Fed’s closely watched September meeting in which the FOMC kept short-term interest rates unchanged and lowered their inflation forecasts for next year. Investors will be looking for any clues on the timing of a rate hike – especially if the markets should expect a 2015 rate hike or a delayed liftoff in 2016. Interest rates have remained near zero since December 2008. TheStreet's Scott Gamm reports from New York.