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NEW YORK, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. dollar ended higher against most major currencies on Monday after a Federal Reserve official's hawkish comments as well as upbeat economic data from the country.
Dallas Fed president Robert Kaplan said on Monday that a rate hike should come "sooner rather than later," to keep up with rising inflation.
On the economic front, U.S. new orders for manufactured durable goods in January increased 4.0 billion U.S. dollars or 1.8 percent to 230.4 billion dollars, in line with market consensus, the Commerce Department said Monday.
Analysts said that Fed policymaker's words and the positive manufacturing data spurred market speculation for a rate-hike as soon as March, which supported the greenback on Monday.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, was up 0.03 percent to 101.120 in late trading.
In late New York trading, the euro rose to 1.0582 dollars from 1.0563 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound dropped to 1.2434 dollars from 1.2456 U.S. dollars in the previous session. The Australian dollar lost to 0.7671 U.S. dollar from 0.7676 U.S. dollar.
The U.S. dollar bought 112.83 Japanese yen, higher than 112.13 yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar climbed to 1.0098 Swiss francs from 1.0072 Swiss francs, and it edged up to 1.3158 Canadian dollars from 1.3093 Canadian dollars.
