Investing.com - The dollar hit intraday highs against major rivals while U.S. stocks fell to session lows as Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell stressed an upbeat outlook for the American economy and suggested that his expectations could be for a more aggressive monetary policy path than that seen in December.
In semi-annual monetary policy testimony to the House Financial Services Committee on Tuesday, Powell was asked what it would take to speed up the process of rate hikes beyond the current three hikes projected by policymakers.
Powell reminded the congressional committee that the latest forecasts were from December and that the new projections would be presented after the March 20-21 meeting.
“My personal outlook for the economy has strengthened since December,” the new Fed chief stated. The comments built on Powell's earlier prepared testimony to Congress that "some of the headwinds the U.S. economy faced in previous years have turned into tailwinds".
Powell did make clear that he could not predict how other policymakers might have adjusted their outlook.
“I wouldn’t want to prejudge that new set of projections,” he explained.
At 11:02AM ET (16:02GMT), the U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, gained 0.61% at 90.32, just have an intraday high of 90.44 hit just after Powell’s comments.
U.S. stocks moved to session lows after Powell’s remarks, but had since pared losses. The Dow Jones fell 47 points, or 0.18% to 25.662.02 points, compared to the session low of 25,615.02 points.
The S&P 500 was last down 0.35% at 2,770 points, compared to the session low of 2,766 points, while the Nasdaq Composite traded down 0.50% to 7,384 points, just off an intraday low of 7,380 points.