U.S. dollar rises on upbeat data

The U.S. dollar climbed against most major currencies on Tuesday as economic data from the country came out positive.

The Commerce Department announced on Tuesday that advance estimates of the U.S. retail and food sales in May increased 0.5 percent from the previous month to 455.6 billion U.S. dollars, beating market consensus of a 0.3-percent gain.

The Fed started its two-day monetary policy meeting on Tuesday. The U.S. central bank was expected to give out more clues of when to raise interest rates this year in its after-meeting statement on Wednesday.

According to analysts, a June-hike was practically off the table in the wake of a much weaker-than-expected non-farm payroll report in May. Moreover, Fed Chair Janet Yellen removed most of the rate hike drama this month when she avoided giving the timeline for further rate hikes in a speech last week.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, was up 0.56 percent at 94.891 in late trading on Friday.

In late New York trading, the euro fell to 1.1212 dollars from 1.1296 dollars of the previous session, and the British pound decreased to 1.4116 dollars from 1.4225 dollars. The Australian dollar went down to 0.7362 dollars from 0.7392 dollars.

The dollar bought 106.06 Japanese yen, lower than 106.18 yen of the previous session. The dollar dropped to 0.9630 Swiss francs from 0.9640 Swiss francs, and it inched up to 1.2860 Canadian dollars from 1.2791 Canadian dollars. Enditem