After comments from U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell indicated that interest rates could stay high longer, the Chinese yuan traded lower against the dollar on Wednesday.

At 03:09 GMT, the yuan traded at 7.2396 per dollar, down slightly from the previous close. The daily fixing of the benchmarks by the central bank and the support of public banks slowed its decline. On the spot market, the spot yuan opened at 7.2360 per dollar and changed hands at 7.2396 at noon. The offshore yuan traded down 0.29% from the onshore spot rate, to 7.2603 per dollar