Forex Pros - The U.S. dollar was down against most other major currencies on Monday, as investors lowered expectations of the Federal Reserve making an earlier-than-forecast interest rate hike. The greenback was down against the yen and pound, with USD/JPY slipping 0.25% to reach 91.29 and GBP/USD rising 0.01% to hit 1.5474. The U.S. dollar also fell against the euro, with EUR/USD climbing 0.02% to hit 1.3611. In addition, the U.S. dollar fell against its Australian, Canadian and Kiwi counterparts: AUD/USD rose 0.07% to hit 0.8992, USD/CAD slid 0.05% to hit 1.0388 and NZD/USD climbed 0.26% to reach 0.7014. But the greenback rose against the Swiss franc, with USD/CHF climbing 0.08% to hit 1.0764. The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, was down 0.08%. On Friday, the Fed hiked an emergency bank-lending rate, triggering speculation on monetary tightening. But a benign U.S. inflation reading on the same day caused investors later to pull back expectations of an interest rate hike, sharpening risk appetite somewhat. Bernanke is expected to shed light on Friday's surprise move at an appearance before the financial committee of the House of Representatives on Wednesday and the Senate banking panel the following day.

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