Most Latin American currencies weakened on Tuesday after the U.S. Federal Reserve chief sounded an upbeat tone on the U.S. economy, driving investors to unwind bets on a slower pace of U.S. interest rate hikes. In testimony before the Senate Banking Committee, Powell downplayed the impact of current global trade policy discussions on the outlook for further monetary tightening. Some investors perused Powell's comments for hints that the Fed could slow the pace of rate hikes, potentially bolstering allure of high-risk, emerging-market assets. "There was not much news in Powell's remarks and some had expected a dovish tone," a portfolio manager based in São Paulo said. Currencies from Mexico, Colombia and Chile slipped between 0.1 and 0.7 percent. Stock markets were mixed, with Brazil's benchmark Bovespa stock index up 1.2 percent as the largest gainer in the region. Blue-chip shares, such as miner Vale SA and lenders Itaú Unibanco Holding SA and Banco Bradesco SA, added the most points to the benchmark index, as investors made final adjustments to their portfolios ahead of the start of the corporate earnings season. Key Latin American stock indexes and currencies at 1520 GMT: Stock indexes daily % YTD % change change Latest MSCI Emerging Markets 1069.05 -0.11 -7.61 MSCI LatAm 2598.56 0.8 -8.85 Brazil Bovespa 77576.57 1.21 1.54 Mexico IPC 48489.47 0.07 -1.75 Chile IPSA 5335.31 0.56 -4.12 Chile IGPA 26960.07 0.41 -3.65 Argentina MerVal 26225.60 -0.14 -12.77 Colombia IGBC 12257.52 -0.1 7.80 Currencies daily % YTD % change change Latest Brazil real 3.8589 0.11 -14.14 Mexico peso 18.8480 -0.12 4.52 Chile peso 654.2 -0.70 -6.05 Colombia peso 2878.7 -0.15 3.59 Peru sol 3.268 -0.09 -0.95 Argentina peso (interbank) 27.4600 -0.36 -32.27 Argentina peso (parallel) 28.9 -0.17 -33.46 (Reporting by Bruno Federowski; Editing by Bernadette Baum)