The US dollar held against its peers on Wednesday, as investors focused on the stock and bond markets movements.

US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell stressed during his semi-annual testimony before the Senate Banking Committee that employment and inflation rates are still far from the Fed's goals.

Powell had stressed before that the US economy's recovery had moderated and employment slowed during the past few months, but expressed optimism about a return to recovery in tandem with vaccination.

Investors continued to focus on the US Treasury yield movement, as it rose today and put pressure on stock markets.

The dollar index held against a basket of major currencies at 90.1 points as of 19:28 GMT, after hitting a high of 90.4 points and a low of 89.9 points.

Oil prices rose on Wednesday, and kept gains despite the release of unexpected build in the US crude inventories data.

The US Energy Information Administration reported today that crude inventories rose 1.3 million barrels to 463 million barrels during the past week, worse than forecasts of a drop by 4.8 million barrels.

While the American Petroleum Institute (API) revealed yesterday in preliminary data that the US crude inventories rose 1 million barrels during the same period.

The dollar index held against a basket of major currencies at 90.1 points as of 17:47 GMT, after hitting a high of 90.4 points and a low of 89.9 points.

As of 17:42 GMT, WTI crude March futures rose 2.2% to $63.01 a barrel, after hitting a day high of $63.3 and a low of $60.9.

Brent April futures rose 2.3% to $66.8 a barrel, after hitting a high of $67.3 and a low of $64.8.

Nickel prices fell on Wednesday, as the US dollar rise against its major peers, amid pressure on Tesla shares, as it heavily uses nickel in the manufacturing of its electric vehicles batteries.

CEO of Tesla has betted on nickel as a promising and reliable metal in increasing production of the battery industry.

However, Tesla has moved recently to cut the prices of some vehicles and stopped receiving orders for its Model Y cars.

Tesla also moved to investing in Bitcoin, which is seeing a bear market, and this sparked criticism of Elon Musk due to this investment.

The dollar index rose against a basket of currencies at 90.2 points as of 14:26 GMT, after it hit a high of 90.3 points and a low of 89.9 points.

As of 14:36 GMT, nickel spot futures rose 2.2% to $19,255.2 per tonne.

The US Energy Information Administration revealed today that the country's crude inventories rose 1.3 million barrels to 463 million barrels last week, worse than analysts' forecasts of a drop by 4.8 million barrels.

The gasoline inventories held at 257.1 million barrels, and distillate stocks fell 5 million to 152.7 million barrels.

While the American Petroleum Institute (API) revealed yesterday in preliminary data that the US crude inventories rose 2 million barrels during the same period.