NEW YORK, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) — The U.S. dollar climbed against most major currencies on Friday as investors digested the country’ s economic growth data for the fourth quarter of 2016.
U.S. real gross domestic product (GDP) increased at an annual rate of 1.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2016, missing market consensus, according to the “advance” estimate released by the Commerce Department Friday.
“GDP rose just 1.6% in 2016 as a whole, the weakest since 2011. With oil prices stable now and oil output rising again, 2017 GDP growth is likely to be 2.5% even before any policy changes go into effect,” said Jay Morelock and Chris Low, economists at FTN Financial, in a joint note.
Traders believed that the U.S. dollar was supported by expectations that U.S. President Donald Trump would deliver on his campaign promise to put policies in place to further bolster the country’s economy.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, increased 0.18 percent at 100.56 in late trading Friday.
In late New York trading, the euro rose to 1.0696 dollars from 1.0695 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound fell to 1.2555 dollars from 1.2600 U.S. dollars in the previous session. The Australian dollar moved up to 0.7551 dollar from 0.7546 dollar.
The U.S. dollar bought 115.08 Japanese yen, higher than 114.41 yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar climbed to 0.9995 Swiss francs from 0.9992 Swiss francs, and it gained to 1.3134 Canadian dollars from 1.3097 Canadian dollars.
