NEW YORK, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. dollar extended losses against other major currencies in late trading on Wednesday, after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Wednesday the central bank's interest rates "remain just below" neutral, raising bets on fewer rate hikes in the future.
"Interest rates are still low by historical standards, and they remain just below the broad range of estimates of the level that would be neutral for the economy - that is, neither speeding up nor slowing down growth," Powell said in a speech at the Economic Club of New York.
Investors largely took the Powell's latest speech as a sign that the Fed would slow down its pace of policy tightening, as the remarks was widely viewed as a "dovish shift" from what Powell said about Fed's rates in early October.
Powell's October comments indicated that the previous rates were a "long way" from a so-called "neutral level," leading to market expectations on a fourth interest rate hikes to take place in December this year following the previous one in September.
Powell stressed in his remarks that Fed's gradual pace of raising interest rates intended to balance risks. "The Fed takes equally seriously the risks of hiking too quickly and shortening the economic expansion, and on the other hand of hiking too slowly and prompting higher inflation or financial instability."
The change of tone in rate hikes came just a day after U.S. President Donald Trump lashed Powell in an interview with the Washington Post, saying he was "not even a little bit happy" with his appointment of Powell earlier this year.
Trump slapped the Fed's rate hikes this year to a range of 2-2.25 percent as "way off base" and "a mistake," because higher borrowing costs were slowing the U.S. economy.
In late New York trading, the euro was up to 1.1376 dollars from 1.1295 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound increased to 1.2834 dollars from 1.2733 U.S. dollars in the previous session. The Australian dollar was up to 0.7314 dollar from 0.7223 dollar.
The U.S. dollar bought 113.53 Japanese yen, lower than 113.78 Japanese yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar fell to 0.9930 Swiss franc from 0.9986 Swiss franc, and it was down to 1.3271 Canadian dollars from 1.3299 Canadian dollars.
