US dollar rises amid upbeat data

New York, Nov 28 : The US dollar increased against most other major currencies as the country's new home sales data came in much better than expected.

In late New York trading on Monday, the euro fell to $1.1899 from $1.1924 in the previous session, and the British pound dipped to $1.3317 from $1.3324 in the previous session, Xinhua reported.

The Australian dollar lost to $0.7607 from $0.7615.

The US dollar bought 111.02 Japanese yen, lower than 111.56 yen of the previous session. The US dollar climbed to 0.9813 Swiss franc from 0.9798 Swiss franc, and it moved up to 1.2763 Canadian dollars from 1.2704 Canadian dollars.

US sales of new single-family houses in October were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 685,000, well above market consensus of 620,000 and hitting the highest level in 10 years, the Commerce Department said on Monday.

This is 6.2 per cent above the revised September rate of 645,000 and 18.7 per cent above the October 2016 estimate of 577,000.

Analysts said the jump in October new home sales could lead the US economy higher as this figure is a leading indicator of economy.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, increased 0.16 per cent at 92.929 in late trading.