By Gina Lee

Investing.com – The dollar was up on Thursday morning in Asia, hitting multi-week highs. U.S. dollars are now considered safe-haven currencies after the chair of U.S. Federal Reserve hinted that interest rates would rise soon.

This chart tracks the greenback’s performance against other currencies. It was up 0.2% to 96.645 at 10:49PM ET (eight:49 GMT).

This pair climbed 0.04% to 114.6.

Both the pair dropped 0.51%, to 0.7078. The pair also fell 0.65% to 0.6608. Data released earlier in the day showed that New Zealand’s consumer price index grew 1.4% and 5.9% in the fourth quarter of 2021.

While the pair increased by 0.40%, it fell to 6.3462. The pair dropped by 0.18% at 1.3437.

As it passed its Wednesday interest rate, the Fed kept its unchanged at 0.255%. Powell indicated a continued battle against high inflation and said there was still “quite enough room to raise interest rate without threatening labor market”. Powell also stated that it would be likely for the Fed to begin increasing interest rates in March 2022.

After Powell’s comments, the dollar rose 0.7% to the safe-haven Japanese yen. This was its highest daily gain in over two months. Stock markets were unnerved by the prospect of interest rate increases imminently, and bond yields climbed.

“While there was communication between Fed members leading up to the meeting, the pivot shouldn’t have come as a surprise. However, the Fed’s willingness to respond to significant inflation pressure made risk appetite shrivelle,” ANZ analysts stated in a note.

According to other data, the slowdown in Asia Pacific was 4.2% year on year for December 2021. Investors are now awaiting U.S. data including and later in the morning.

Meanwhile, the pound tested support as the following week’s policy decision looms and the political turmoil over U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s breaking of COVID-19 lockdown rules.

After taking a plunge the week before, cryptocurrencies held firm after the Fed policy change. But bitcoin was subject to some volatility in Asia. It traded nearly 2% below its previous trading level of $36,100.