Investing.com - The U.S. dollar was little changed against other major currencies on Monday, as Friday's upbeat U.S. housing sector data continued to support despite fresh U.S. political concerns.
Trading volumes were expected to remain thin with U.S. markets closed on Monday in observance of Presidents' Day.
The greenback strengthened after data on Friday showed that U.S. homebuilding increased to more than a one-year high in January and that building permits soared to their highest level since 2007.
The upbeat report overshadowed fresh concerns over the deficit in the U.S., which is projected to climb near $1 trillion in 2019 following the recent announcement of infrastructure spending and large corporate tax cuts.
The dollar has been pressure lower recently by expectations for a faster rate of monetary tightening outside the U.S., which would lessen the divergence between the Federal Reserve and other central banks.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was steady at 89.08 by 05:15 a.m. ET (09:15 GMT).
The yen was lower, with USD/JPY up 0.38% at 106.60, off Friday’s 15-month lows of 105.55, while USD/CHF held steady at 0.9275.
Elsewhere, the euro was moderately higher, with EUR/USD up 0.10 at 1.2416, while GBP/USD eased 0.08% to 1.4017.
The Australian dollar was stronger, with AUD/USD up 0.23% at 0.7923, while NZD/USD held steady at 0.7382.
Meanwhile, USD/CAD was almost unchanged at 1.2550.