Early trade in New York: Dollar gains against major currencies

NEW YORK: The US dollar rose against most major currencies on Friday as US government bond yields held near one-year highs, while riskier currencies such as the Aussie dollar weakened.

Yields have surged as an acceleration in the pace of vaccinations globally and optimism over improving global growth bolster bets that inflation will rise. That has also led investors to price in earlier monetary tightening than the Federal Reserve and other central banks have signaled.

The dollar index rose 0.18% to 90.479, after earlier reaching 90.773, its highest level in a week.

It gained against the yen, touching 106.51 for the first time since September.

Riskier currencies retreated. The Aussie fell 1.23% to $0.7772, after topping $0.80 on Thursday for the first time since February of 2018.

The euro dipped 0.32% to $1.2135 after touching a seven-week high of $1.2244 on Thursday. Bitcoin was last up 0.24% at $47,155. Ethereum gained 2.8% to $1,522.