From Zero Hedge;

There was an interesting exchange during Janet Yellen's testimony before the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday morning, when South Carolina Republican Mick Mulvaney asked Yellen if the Fed will openly (as opposed to indirectly via Citadel) buy stocks. Specifically, he said that "there's been some attention in the last few months about the resent decision by the Bank of Japan to start purchasing equities and my question to you is fairly simple. Is the United States Federal Reserve looking at the possibility of adding the purchase of equities to its tool box as it looks at monetary policy?"

This was her response:

"Well, the Federal Reserve is not permitted to purchase equities. We can only purchase U.S. treasuries and agency securities. I did mention in a speech in Jackson Hole, though, where I discussed longer term issues and difficulties we could have in providing adequate monetary policy. Accommodation may be somewhere in the future, down the line that this is the kind of thing that Congress might consider, but if you were to do so, it's not something that the Federal Reserve is asking for."  Quote--

Why would the Federal Reserve Bank want to buy corporate stock?  The only reason I can see, is that they want to keep the stock market from crashing.  If this happened, a lot of retirement funds would be in trouble.