U.S. dollar rallies on upbeat data

The U.S. dollar surged against other major currencies on Friday as economic data from the country came out positive.

The U.S. Commerce Department announced Friday that advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for June increased 0.6 percent from the previous month to 457.0 billion U.S. dollars, beating market consensus of a 0.1-percent gain.

The U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI) for all urban consumers increased 0.2 percent in June on a seasonally adjusted basis, in line with market forecasts, the Labor Department reported Friday.

Meanwhile, U.S. industrial production increased 0.6 percent in June after declining 0.3 percent in May, higher than market consensus, said the Federal Reserve Friday.

The greenback was well supported by the strong data. The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against six major peers, was up 0.56 percent at 96.617 in late trading.

In late New York trading, the euro fell to 1.1058 dollars from 1.1123 dollars of the previous session, and the British pound declined to 1.3197 dollars from 1.3323 dollars. The Australian dollar went down to 0.7593 dollars from 0.7640 dollars.

The dollar bought 105.57 Japanese yen, higher than 105.38 yen of the previous session. The dollar climbed to 0.9838 Swiss francs from 0.9800 Swiss francs, and it inched up to 1.2953 Canadian dollars from 1.2879 Canadian dollars. Endit