The dollar hit its highest in over two weeks on Wednesday, extending a rally as chatter about the possibility of higher U.S. interest rates and a selloff in tech stocks soured risk sentiment to the benefit of the safehaven currency.

The dollars bounce on Tuesday put pressure on the euro, which dropped once again below the 1.20 mark on Wednesday and breached important chart support in the 1.19951.2000 area. It hit its lowest against the buck in over two weeks, down 0.2 on the day.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of peer currencies, rose as high as 91.436, its highest since April 19.

The bounce was partly sparked by comments from U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen that rate hikes may be needed to stop the economy overheating.

Yellen later downplayed their importance, but even the slightest mention of U.S. tightening has an outsized impact in markets that have become so dependent on monetary stimulus.

The effect was apparent in largecap tech stocks, which suffered hefty losses overnight, dragging the Nasdaq down 1.88.

The markets may be tempted to do some yellen and screaming after last nights episode, following the apparent hawkish comments by the U.S. Treasury secretary and the subsequent backtracking, said Valentin Marinov, head of G10 FX research at Credit Agricole.

All that said, the comments do highlight that there is now an ongoing debate among the U.S. officials about the need to curb the Feds ultraaggressive monetary…