The US dollar continued to slide during trading yesterday (November 16th) after a statement from Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke pledging support for the global reserve currency.Speaking at the Economic Club of New York, the chairman assured members the Fed was keeping a close eye on the currency's weakness and reiterated his commitment to keeping interest rates low for a sustained period.Commenting on the speech, Peter Boockvar, an equity strategist at Miller Tabak and Co in New York, told Reuters: "Bernanke finally is doing what any self respecting central banker does, admit that the weakness of the reserve currency of the world matters."Responding to the announcement, foreign exchange traders pushed the dollar to a fresh 15-month during the North American trading session on Monday.While low-yielders such as the dollar and the yen suffered yesterday, demand for emerging-market currencies such as the Brazilian real continued to strengthen, extending its 35 per cent gains seen so far this year.