ZURICH: The Swiss franc slipped against the dollar on Friday as the greenback pushed back towards a three-week high despite reassurances from US Federal Reserve officials over the central bank's plan to pull back from stimulus measures.
New York Fed President William Dudley and Fed Governor Jerome Powell sought to ease concerns of an early interest rate hike after Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke last week laid out a roadmap for scaling back the Fed's asset buying programme, initially weighing on the dollar.
Bernanke's comments sparked a sell-off in risk assets, with spooked investors bidding up the safe haven dollar and lifting the Swiss franc, another safe haven asset, against other units.
But although US Treasury yields have pulled back in recent sessions, making the dollar less attractive to investors, some analysts said yield differentials are still favouring the greenback.
"US bond yields have come off a little bit in the last couple of days, but I think the environment we're in is still dollar-positive," said Credit Agricole foreign exchange strategist Mitul Kotecha.
On the home front, the Swiss KOF research institute's economic gauge of expected performance in about six months rose to 1.16 in June, its highest since December.
The franc slipped 0.1 percent against the dollar to 0.9463 francs per dollar by 0708 GMT.
The franc was weaker against the euro, falling 0.2 percent to 1.2348 per euro.
Traders said some last minute positioning ahead of the end of the month and quarter helped the euro edge off a four-week trough, although the common currency was still headed for its second week of declines against the dollar.
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