Ammon News - The U.S. dollar rose sharply and then steadied on Wednesday as President Donald Trump backed away from threats of firing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell in a relief to investors, while optimism around trade deals lifted beaten-down sentiment.

The markets this week have been grappling with the notion that the Fed's independence could be under threat after repeated attacks by Trump on Powell for not cutting rates since the president resumed office in January.

That left the dollar rising rapidly at the start of the trading day in Asian hours, but it steadied by mid-afternoon ahead of the European open.

The dollar rose more than 1% against the yen to 143.21 in early trading and was last slightly stronger at 141.85. Against the Swiss franc , the dollar was last 0.4% stronger at 0.8222, having jumped more than 1% earlier in the session.

The euro eased 0.2% to $1.1393, while sterling was down 0.15% at $1.3313.

In other currencies, the Australian dollar rose 0.49% to $0.6396, while the New Zealand dollar was 0.28% higher at $0.598. Reuters