Ammon News - The dollar stepped back from a tariff-driven rally on Wednesday, as traders awaited U.S. inflation data and news on the broader trade front, though hawkish remarks from Fed Chair Jerome Powell pushed up U.S. yields and lent some support against the yen.

In Asia, the dollar rose 0.7% to 153.56 yen , breaking above its 200-day moving average, but elsewhere it was nursing modest losses and traded at $1.0358 per euro .

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, in testimony on Capitol Hill, stuck to a view there was no hurry to lower interest rates, which pushed 10-year Treasury yields up about 4 basis points.

U.S. CPI is published at 1330 GMT and economists polled by Reuters expect core consumer inflation to increase slightly to 0.3% for January.

Speculators in the currency market are long dollars and some may be nervous that a softer reading could stoke bets on rate cuts and force an unwind of wagers on a higher dollar.

Data last week showed net U.S. dollar long positions against other G10 currencies stood around $31.5 billion.
Wall Street's main indexes ended mixed on Tuesday,

Sterling , which rose about 0.7% on Tuesday, hovered at $1.2441 in Asia session. The Australian dollar held a more modest gain at $0.6291. Reuters