Investing.com - The U.S. dollar added to gains against its major counterparts in Asian trade Monday, aided by corporate merger announcements and a better-than-expected GDP report from Japan.
In early Asian trade, the greenback was higher against the euro, with EUR/USD falling 0.03% to hit 1.4440.
Earlier in the day, a report from the New York Federal Reserve Bank showed that its index of manufacturing conditions worsened in August, falling 3.9 points to minus 7.7, following a minus 3.8 figure in July.
Economists had forecast the so-called Empire State manufacturing index, which measures economic health in the manufacturing sector by surveying about 200 manufacturers in New York State, to improve slightly since July to minus 0.4.
Wall Street posted its third straight winning session, boosted by merger news and an 8% jump in shares from Dow Jones component Bank of America.
Market players greeted warmly the news that Google Inc would buy Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. for USD12.5 billion.
The Dow closed up up 1.9%, to close at 11,182.90. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index rose 1.9% to 2,555.20, and the S&P 500 gained 2.1% to 1,204.49.
Providing some optimism for improvement in global economic growth, Japan reported that its gross domestic product fell by 0.3% in the April to June quarter, from minus 0.9 the previous quarter. Although Japan’s GDP remained in negative territory, the quarterly figure was only half of analyst’s expectations of a minus 0.6% fall.
The Japanese economy contracted by 3.6% in the January to March quarter, the period during which the country was hit by a devastating earthquake and tsunamis.
Meanwhile, the greenback was up against the British pound, with GBP/USD slipping 0.02% to 1.6384.
The dollar gained ground against both the yen and the Swiss franc with USD/JPY adding 0.01% to hit 76.84, and USD/CHF higher by 0.04% to hit 0.7843.
The greenback was mixed against its Canadian, Australian and New Zealand counterparts with USD/CAD up 0.13% to hit 0.9810, AUD/USD lower by 0.14% to hit 1.0490, and NZD/USD adding 0.15% to hit 0.8339.
The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, was down 1.01% at 73.95.
The U.S. Federal Reserve was scheduled to release monthly figures on industrial production on Tuesday.