US dollar strengthens on upbeat data

New York: The US dollar strengthened against most major currencies in late trading on Friday, bolstered by some positive data.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, rose 0.32 percent at 97.6930 in late trading.

In late New York trading, the euro fell to $1.1074 from $1.1124 in the previous session, and the British pound decreased to $1.3013 from $1.3014 in the previous session. The Australian dollar was up to $0.6902 from $0.6885, Xinhua reported.

The US dollar bought 109.47 Japanese yen, higher than 109.28 Japanese yen of the previous session. The US dollar increased to 0.9825 Swiss francs from 0.9776 Swiss francs, and it increased to 1.3154 Canadian dollars from 1.3118 Canadian dollars.

US economic growth in the third quarter expanded at an annual rate of 2.1 percent, the US Commerce Department said on Friday, amid concerns of a weak performance in the fourth quarter.

The latest figure is unrevised from its previous estimate, but it’s higher than the first estimate of 1.9 percent, according to the data released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

“With the third estimate for the third quarter, upward revisions to personal consumption expenditures (PCE) and nonresidential fixed investment were offset by a downward revision to private inventory investment,” the bureau said.