Bernanke: Tapering depends on further improvement in jobs data.

The Fed's scaling back of its bond-buying program still depends on the jobs market improving further and a rise in inflation towards the central bank's goal of 2%, Ben Bernanke said in a speech last night. Bernanke also said that the Fed is likely to keep interest rates near zero until "perhaps well after" unemployment drops below 6.5%, the bank's threshold for increasing rates, as policy makers want to be assured of the strength of the job market.