Investing.com - The dollar remained at one-and-a-half month highs against a basket of other major currencies on Friday, as the release of upbeat U.S. economic reports continued to lend broad support to the greenback.
Data on Friday showed that the U.S. consumer price index rose 0.3% in June, in line with expectations and after a 0.4% gain the previous month. On a yearly basis, consumer prices rose 0.1% in June, in line with market expectations.
Core consumer prices, which exclude food and energy, rose 0.2% last month, in line with expectations and after an uptick of 0.1% in May.
A separate report showed that U.S. housing starts rose 9.8% to 1.174 million units in June from a revised total of 1.069 million units the previous month. Analysts had expected housing starts to increase by 6.2% last month.
U.S. building permits rose 7.4% to 1.343 million units last month from 1.250 million units in May, confounding expectations for a 11.8% drop.
Also Friday, the University of Michigan said, in a preliminary report, that its consumer sentiment index ticked down to 93.3 in July from 96.1 the previous month, confounding expectations for an unchanged reading.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was up 0.20% at 97.97, the highest level since June 2.
EUR/USD slipped 0.28% to 1.0848 after hitting highs of 1.0907 earlier in the session.
The euro had found some support after euro zone ministers agreed on Thursday to give Greece a €7 billion bridging loan from a European Union-wide fund to keep its finances afloat until a bailout is approved.
The loan was expected to be confirmed on Friday by all EU member states.
The news came after the European Central Bank increased its emergency lending to Greek banks by €900 million and added that it is operating under the assumption that Greece will remain in the euro zone.
The pound was moderately higher, with GBP/USD up 0.08% at 1.5624.
Elsewhere, the dollar was lower against the yen, with USD/JPY down 0.09% to 124.02, still close to Thursday's three-week highs of 124.13, and higher against the Swiss franc, with USD/CHF gaining 0.28% to 0.9606.
The Australian dollar was lower, with AUD/USD down 0.38% at 0.7377, while NZD/USD rose 0.33% to 0.6533, off Thursday's six-year lows of 0.6498
USD/CAD edged up 0.25% to trade at six-year highs of 1.2991 after data showed that Canada's consumer prices rose 0.2% in June, in line with expectations and after an increase of 0.6% the previous month.
On a yearly basis, consumer prices increased by 1.0% last month, in line with market expectations.
Core consumer prices, which exclude the eight most volatile items, were flat in June, compared to expectations for a 0.1% slip and after a 0.4% gain in May.