NEW YORK, June 22 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. dollar weakened in late trading on Wednesday as market participants digested Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell's testimony before the U.S. Senate Banking Committee.

       The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, decreased 0.23 percent to 104.1980.

       In late New York trading, the euro rose to 1.0569 U.S. dollars from 1.0534 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound was down to 1.2264 U.S. dollars from 1.2277 dollars in the previous session. The Australian dollar fell to 0.6932 U.S. dollars from 0.6975 U.S. dollars.

       The U.S. dollar bought 136.26 Japanese yen, lower than 136.52 Japanese yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar decreased to 0.9616 Swiss franc from 0.9662 Swiss franc, and it rose to 1.2934 Canadian dollars from 1.2919 Canadian dollars.

       Powell said Wednesday that the central bank is "strongly committed" to bringing down inflation and can do so with its monetary policy tools.

       He also said that the Fed is not trying to provoke a recession by rate hikes, but it may be a possibility.

       The remarks came one week after the U.S. central bank delivered the largest interest rate hike since 1994 in an effort to combat inflation that is running at a four-decade high.