Highlights from a speech from the Fed's Fischer Jan 3, 2016 in San Francisco

  • May be appropriate to raise rates to deal with excessively high asset prices in economy
  • No comments on the current outlook
  • Warns against raising inflation target
  • Difficult to raise equilibrium rate
  • Equilibrium rate likely to remain low for 'policy-relevant future'
  • Expects more periods of zero-bound rates given environment of low equilibrium rates
  • Success in rates liftoff eases some concerns over unconventional policy
  • New tools proved effective in raising rates from zero
  • Europe experience shows zero not lower bound for rates but there are potential obstacles to the US using negative rates

The first comment stands out but he's saying it in a more theoretical sense than as a signal.

"If asset prices across the economy -- that is, taking all financial markets into account -- are thought to be excessively high, raising the interest rate may be the appropriate step," Fischer said.

He did, however, hint that the US could be one of those cases because he said macro-prudential tools were lacking or untested.