Yuan slides, dollar jumps as investors await rate rise clues from Fed Chair Yellen
US dollar index jumped to its highest level since January 13 after a lack of policy detail in Trump’s Congressional address sharpened focus on Yellen

The Chinese yuan weakened on Wednesday as the US dollar surged to a more than one-month high in the afternoon.
Investors shifted their focus towards Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen’s speech on Friday, which may provide signals of an interest rate rise in March. They will be listening to her words even more keenly after President Donald Trump failed to provide any meaningful details about his budget plans during his highly anticipated first address to Congress.
Onshore yuan closed at 6.8800 against the US dollar, 0.2 per cent or 110 points weaker. Offshore yuan dropped 131 points, or 0.2 per cent, to 6.8686 per US dollar.
The People’s Bank of China set the yuan’s reference rate at 6.8798 on Wednesday, 48 points below its level on Tuesday.
The DXY, the USddollar index that tracks its value against a basket of six rival currencies, at one stage surged to 101.79, the strongest level since January 13, as traders switched their attention to the rising possibility of an interest rate rise this month.