U.S. dollar climbs amid Yellen's comments

Xinhua
05 May 2021, 06:05 GMT+10

NEW YORK, May 4 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. dollar strengthened in late trading on Tuesday as market participants digested U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen's comments.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, increased 0.39 percent at 91.3005.

In late New York trading, the euro fell to 1.2010 U.S. dollars from 1.2066 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound decreased to 1.3889 dollars from 1.3913 U.S. dollars in the previous session. The Australian dollar decreased to 0.7704 U.S. dollar from 0.7765 dollar.

The U.S. dollar bought 109.30 Japanese yen, higher than 109.10 Japanese yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar was up to 0.9136 Swiss franc from 0.9110 Swiss franc, and it rose to 1.2310 Canadian dollars from 1.2274 Canadian dollars.

The above moves came as Yellen said in an interview with The Atlantic aired on Tuesday that interest rates may have to increase to prevent the American economy from overheating.

Yellen's remarks came after the Federal Reserve last week kept its benchmark interest rates unchanged at the record-low level of near zero.

Jerome Powell, in his Fed Chair Press Conference last Wednesday, said that the economic recovery was happening faster than expected, but acknowledged the unevenness. He said that "it is not time yet" to talk about tapering the Fed's asset purchase program, as it will "take some time before we see substantial further progress" toward the central bank's employment and inflation goals.

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