(New throughout; adds analyst quotes)
By Kate Duguid
Nov 12 (Reuters) - The dollar was little changed after U.S.
President Donald Trump in a speech on Tuesday offered no new
details on the state of the administration's trade war with
China.
The dollar index .DXY held onto modest gains made earlier
on Tuesday, but was last trading at 98.310 against a basket of
six currencies, up 0.11% on the day, and a hair above 98.304,
its level at noon when Trump's remarks began.
Speaking at The Economic Club of New York, Trump instead
took aim once again at the Federal Reserve, bemoaning the fact
that the United States has higher interest rates than other
developed economies.
"Give me some of that. Give me some of that money. I want
some of that money. Our Federal Reserve doesn't let us do it."
The speech was highly anticipated by the foreign exchange
market, which has moved with trade headlines. The paucity of
details on trade in itself was seen by some as a pessimistic
signal.
"I don't think we've learned anything new from Trump's
speech. The only thing that's maybe new is that he did not
announce a date and a time for a signing ceremony. Where markets
had been hoping for that, those hopes were dashed," said Greg
Anderson, global head of foreign exchange strategy at BMO
Capital Markets.
"We had a little bit of a fade in risky assets when he
started talking and it was confirmed that he was not about to
announce phase one."
The S&P 500 index .SPX fell as Trump spoke, though
remained positive on the day. The Dow .DJI and Nasdaq .IXIC
indexes had also fallen. Some of that risk-off sentiment was
seen boosting safe-haven assets modestly. The dollar was 0.08%
weaker against the Japanese yen JPY= and 0.09% lower versus
the Swiss franc CHF= .
The dollar was lifted last week when comments from the
Chinese trade ministry were interpreted as a sign of progress on
rolling back China-U.S. tariffs, causing traders to dump
safe-haven currencies like the yen. However, uncertainty hit
again on Friday when Trump said that he had not agreed to reduce
tariffs. The offshore Chinese yuan was weaker against the dollar at
7.018, down 0.17%. The threshold of 7 yuan per dollar was
crossed for the first time in August CNH= . The yuan had also
weakened earlier Tuesday on political unrest in Hong Kong and
after weak economic data in mainland China.