U.S. dollar rallies after Powell's comments

NEW YORK, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. dollar rose against most other major currencies on Tuesday after U.S. Federal Reserve chair nominee Jerome Powell said he expected the central bank to continue monetary tightening and to ease regulatory burdens on financial system.

"If confirmed, I would strive, along with my colleagues, to support the economy's continued progress toward full recovery," said Powell in remarks to be delivered at his Senate confirmation hearing on Tuesday.

"We expect interest rates to rise somewhat further and the size of our balance sheet to gradually shrink," he added.

Powell, who is currently a member of the Fed's Board of Governors, was nominated by Trump to replace chair Janet Yellen, whose term as chair expires in February 2018. He is expected to face smooth confirmation at the Senate.

On the economic front, the international trade deficit came in at 68.3 billion U.S. dollars in October, up 4.2 billion dollars from 64.1 billion dollars in September, the U.S. Commerce Department said Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price NSA Index reported Tuesday a 6.2-percent annual gain in September, up from 5.9 percent in the previous month.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, increased 0.45 percent at 93.318 in late trading.

In late New York trading, the euro fell to 1.1839 dollars from 1.1899 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound rose to 1.3376 dollars from 1.3317 U.S. dollars in the previous session. The Australian dollar lost to 0.7597 dollar from 0.7607 dollar.

The U.S. dollar bought 111.55 Japanese yen, higher than 111.02 yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar climbed to 0.9844 Swiss franc from 0.9813 Swiss franc, and it moved up to 1.2816 Canadian dollars from 1.2763 Canadian dollars. Enditem