US dollar mixed after continued strength

The US dollar traded mixed against major currencies on Friday after posting a strong performance recently largely thanks to an array of positive economic data from the United States. The greenback had rallied against its main peers in the past few trading sessions as a series of encouraging U.S. data raised the speculation that the Federal Reserve may step up an exit from its monetary stimulus. However, the dollar seemed to lose momentum somewhat in the day, as Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said Friday that the tapering of the Fed's quantitative easing does not affect its commitment to low rates at an American Economic Association meeting. The U.S. central bank announced a minor reduction in its massive bond buying program at its latest policy meeting in December, which provided a boost to the dollar. The Japanese yen advanced against the dollar, rebounding from a multi-year low, as investors chose to take their money off the table. While the euro extended its losses versus the dollar as the European Central Bank is widely to keep its loose monetary policy intact at its policy meeting next week. In late New York trading, the euro dropped to 1.3597 dollars from 1.3654 dollars of the previous session, and the British pound decreased to 1.6421 dollars from 1.6423 dollars. The Australian dollar rose to 0.8971 dollar from 0.8908 dollar. The dollar bought 104.66 yen, lower than 104.71 yen of the previous session. The greenback moved up to 0.9050 Swiss francs from 0.9007, and decreased to 1.0616 Canadian dollars from 1.0664.