The dollar rose to one-week highs on Friday, for a fourth straight session of gains, on rate-hike remarks by a senior Fed official and generally positive US data that supported the notion the world's largest economy was on a stable growth path. The dollar index, a gauge of the greenback's value against six major currencies, bounced back from seven-month lows struck on Monday and was on track for its largest weekly gain in a month as financial markets calmed down after recent turmoil.
The index extended gains after Federal Reserve Vice Chair Stanley Fischer said the US central bank can't wait for the case on hiking interest rates to be overwhelming. But he was undecided whether to raise rates in September. In midday trading, the dollar index was up 0.6 percent at 96.166, having hit a one-week high of 96.324. After diving to a seven-month trough of 92.621 on Monday when global stock markets went into a tailspin, the index has bounced 3.0 percent the last four days.
Against the yen, the greenback rose 0.2 percent to 121.25 21 yen, a remarkable recovery from Monday's seven-month low of 116.15. The yen showed little reaction to data showing Japan's inflation slowed to zero, its weakest in two years. The euro, meanwhile, fell 0.6 percent to $1.1180, well off its lofty perch above $1.1700 reached on Monday when the selloff in global markets and worries about a Chinese slowdown led investors to unwind euro-funded carry trades.
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