U.S. dollar rises amid economic reports

NEW YORK, Dec. 22 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. dollar climbed against most other major currencies on Friday as investors pondered over a string of economic data.

U.S. personal income in November increased 54.0 billion U.S. dollars, or 0.3 percent, lower than market consensus of 0.4 percent, according to the Commerce Department Friday.

In November, disposable personal income (DPI) increased 50.9 billion dollars, or 0.4 percent, and personal consumption expenditures (PCE) increased 87.1 billion dollars, or 0.6 percent.

In a separate report, the department announced that sales of new single-family houses in November 2017 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 733,000, well above market expectations.

This is 17.5 percent above the revised October rate of 624,000 and is 26.6 percent above the November 2016 estimate of 579,000.

Meanwhile, U.S. new orders for manufactured durable goods in November increased 3.1 billion dollars or 1.3 percent to 241.2 billion dollars, missing market projection of a 2-percent gain, the Commerce Department said in another report Friday.

The U.S. tax bill was also in focus. U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday signed the 1.5-trillion-dollar tax cut bill into law. The U.S. Congress earlier this week passed the tax bill along party line, with no Democrats voting for it.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, increased 0.06 percent at 93.336 in late trading.

In late New York trading, the euro fell to 1.1851 dollars from 1.1871 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound dipped to 1.3372 dollars from 1.3381 U.S. dollars in the previous session. The Australian dollar gained to 0.7718 dollar from 0.7706 dollar.

The U.S. dollar bought 113.31 Japanese yen, lower than 113.35 yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar advanced to 0.9901 Swiss franc from 0.9884 Swiss franc, and it moved up to 1.2732 Canadian dollars from 1.2730 Canadian dollars. Enditem