What a difference a week and a few speeches can make.

If there are any doubts that the Federal Reserve will hike interest rates in March, Chairwoman Janet Yellen just quashed them.

Speaking at The Executives' Club of Chicago on Friday, Yellen said that as long as there aren't any major surprises from indicators on jobs and inflation over the next few days, a rate hike "would likely be appropriate" at the Fed's next meeting, which concludes on March 15.

"We realize that waiting too long to scale back some of our support could potentially require us to raise rates rapidly sometime down the road, which in turn could risk disrupting financial markets and pushing the economy into recession," Yellen said.