WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The U.S. dollar continued to exhibit strength against most major rivals on Tuesday, riding on the latest batch of economic data and on optimism about a U.S.-China trade agreement.
The downward revision in China's growth forecast too supported dollar's uptick.
The Dollar Index rose to 97.01 before paring some gains. Still, at 96.80, the index was up by about 0.2% from previous close.
Against the British Pound, the dollar strengthened to 1.3176, rising from a low of 1.3197.
Against the Euro, the dollar gained about 0.3%, advancing to 1.1308.
The Japanese yen was weak as well against the greenback, easing to 112.12 before recovering some lost ground. Still, at 111.88, the Yen was down by about 0.13% from last close.
Activity in the U.S. services sector rebounded much more than expected in February, a report from the Institute for Supply Management showed.
The ISM said its non-manufacturing index climbed to 59.7 in February after falling to 56.7 in January, with a reading above 50 indicating growth in the service sector. Economists had expected the index to inch up to 57.3.
The rebound by the headline index was partly due to a notable acceleration in the pace of new orders growth, with the new orders index surging up to 65.2 in February from 57.7 in January.
The business activity index also jumped to 64.7 in February from 59.7 in January, although the employment index dipped to 55.2 from 57.8.
The report also said the prices index fell to 54.4 in February from 59.4 in January, indicating a notable slowdown in the pace of price growth.
Meanwhile, new homes sales in the U.S. unexpectedly showed a notable increase in the month of December, according to a report released by the Commerce Department on Tuesday.
The report said new home sales jumped by 3.7% to an annual rate of 621,000 in December after surging up by 9.1% to a revised rate of 599,000 in November.
Economists had expected new home sales to tumble by 8.7% to a rate of 600,000 from the 657,000 originally reported for the previous month.
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