Investing.com - Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said Wednesday that the central bank is on track to raise interest rates "before year end", sending the dollar broadly higher.
In prepared remarks released before her testimony to the House Financial Services committee, Fed Chair Yellen said that the Fed is likely to raise rates 'at some point this year.'
She added that the U.S. labor market healthier but 'still some slack'.
According to Yellen, the Greek debt crisis, as well as China's recent economic woes, 'pose some risks' to U.S. growth.
EUR/USD was trading at 1.0980 from around 1.1006 ahead of Yellen’s comments, GBP/USD was at 1.5606 from 1.5626 earlier, while USD/JPY was at 123.78 from 123.44 earlier.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was at 97.05, compared to 96.82 ahead of the report.
The dollar has been well-supported in recent weeks amid indications that the U.S. economy is regaining strength after a recent bout of weakness, supporting the case for higher interest rates later this year.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures pointed to a steady open. The Dow futures pointed to a gain of 0.1%, the S&P 500 futures tacked on 0.1%, while the Nasdaq 100 futures advanced 0.2%.
Elsewhere, in the commodities market, gold futures traded at $1,150.80 a troy ounce, compared to $1,153.30 ahead of the data, while crude oil traded at $52.49 a barrel from $52.59 earlier.