NEW YORK, July 13 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. dollar index decreased against other major currencies in late trading on Friday, as investors pondered over remarks from U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.
Powell said on Thursday that the Trump administration's high tariffs against imports could be a negative for the U.S. economy.
"If it works out other ways, so that we wind up having high tariffs on a lot of products and a lot of traded goods and services ... and that they become sustained for a long period of time ... that could be a negative for our economy," Powell said in a radio interview with Marketplace.
Powell signaled that the central bank could slow the pace of rate hikes or even lower interest rates if the U.S. economy weakens.
On the economic front, U.S. import prices decreased 0.4 percent in June, missing market estimates of a 0.1-percent gain, while prices for U.S. exports rose 0.3 percent, in line with market consensus, the Labor Department announced Friday.
Meanwhile, U.S. Consumer Sentiment Index came in at 97.1 in July, below market expectation of 98.4, according to a survey released by the University of Michigan on Friday.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, decreased 0.08 percent at 94.749 in late trading.
In late New York trading, the euro rose to 1.1678 dollars from 1.1667 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound was up to 1.3228 dollars from 1.3208 U.S. dollars in the previous session. The Australian dollar climbed to 0.7414 dollar from 0.7403 dollar.
The U.S. dollar bought 112.30 Japanese yen, lower than 112.51 Japanese yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar fell to 1.0021 Swiss francs from 1.0027 Swiss francs, and it dipped to 1.3162 Canadian dollars from 1.3172 Canadian dollars.
