American focus: dollar rose

The dollar rose against the euro and the yen as U.S. economic data indicated a strengthening recovery, undermining the case for more stimulus from the Federal Reserve.

The U.S. currency gained from the lowest level this month against its 17-nation European counterpart as reports showed home-prices declines slowed and consumer confidence this month stayed close to the highest level in a year. The Dollar Index dropped 0.9 percent during the past two days amid speculation the Fed will start a third round of quantitative easing, or QE3. The S&P/Case-Shiller index of property values in 20 U.S. cities fell 3.8 percent from a year earlier, matching the median forecast of 32 economists, after decreasing 4.1 percent in December, a report from the group showed today in New York. The Conference Board’s confidence index dropped to 70.2 from a revised 71.6 reading in February that was higher than initially reported, figures from the New York-based private research group showed today. The median forecast of economists called for a decrease to 70.

The yen has depreciated 10.8 percent this year, the worst performance among the 10 developed-nation currencies tracked by Bloomberg Correlation-Weighted Indexes. The dollar has fallen 2.7 percent, and the euro has gained 0.4 percent.