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NEW YORK, May 18 (Xinhua) — The U.S. dollar strengthened in late trading on Wednesday as market participants digested the hawkish comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, rose 0.43 percent to 103.8100.
In late New York trading, the euro fell to 1.0479 U.S. dollars from 1.0549 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound decreased to 1.2346 dollars from 1.2481 U.S. dollars in the previous session. The Australian dollar decreased to 0.6967 U.S. dollar from 0.7014 dollar.
The U.S. dollar bought 128.12 Japanese yen, lower than 129.43 Japanese yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar fell to 0.9877 Swiss franc from 0.9941 Swiss franc, and it rose to 1.2873 Canadian dollars from 1.2830 Canadian dollars.
The above market reactions came after Powell stressed the U.S. central bank’s resolve to curb the hottest inflation in decades.
Speaking at an event of The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, Powell said the Fed would keep raising interest rates until there was “clear and convincing evidence” that inflation was in retreat.
If necessary, the Fed wouldn’t hesitate to push rates past “broadly understood levels of neutral” to bring down inflation, he added. The neutral rate is the level at which policy neither boosts nor restrains economic growth.
Earlier this month, the U.S. central bank announced a half-point increase in its benchmark rate, the sharpest rate hike since 2000, and signaled that hikes of similar magnitudes remain on the table at the next couple of meetings.
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