Sharjah24 - Reuters: A solid run of economic statistics coming out of the US on Monday helped the dollar gain ground, and traders predict that the Federal Reserve will continue to tighten monetary policy longer than previously anticipated.
The greenback advanced broadly in early Asia trade, sending sterling 0.12% lower to $1.2028 and the Aussie falling 0.18% to $0.6866.
Against the Japanese yen, the dollar rose 0.14% to 134.32.
Trading is likely to be thin on Monday, with U.S. markets closed for Presidents' Day.
A slew of data out of the world's largest economy in recent weeks pointing to a still-tight labour market, sticky inflation, robust retail sales growth and higher monthly producer prices, have raised market expectations that the U.S. central bank has more to do in taming inflation, and that interest rates would have to go higher.
"For the week ahead, the dollar can track higher given the recent run of economic data which supports the narrative of higher-for-longer interest rates," said Carol Kong, a currency strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA).
Markets are now expecting the Fed funds rate to peak just under 5.3% by July.
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