US dollar rises against euro to near 5 year high

The U.S. dollar rallied against other major currencies on Friday and climbed against the euro to the highest level in almost five years as the president of European Central Bank (ECB) signaled to increase stimulus measures.
The euro depreciated on the news that ECB President Mario Draghi said in an interview on Friday that "we are in technical preparations to alter the size, speed and composition of our measures at the beginning of 2015," suggesting that the central bank was ready to launch more monetary stimulus for the waning economy.
The euro/dollar rate dropped 0.83 percent during the session and touched 1.2002, the lowest level since June 2010. The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against six major currencies, was down 0.89 percent at 91.076 in late trading.
On the economic front, The U.S. Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) went down 3.2 points from November's reading to 55.5 in December, the slowest monthly growth in six months, the Institute for Supply Management reported on Friday. The report from financial data firm Markit also showed Friday that U.S. manufacturing output growth slows again in December. The final seasonally adjusted Markit U.S. manufacturing PMI fell from 54.8 in November to 53.9 in December, indicating the weakest improvement in overall manufacturing sector business conditions since January.
Moreover, U.S. construction spending slipped 0.3 percent in November after a 1.2-percent rebound in October due to weak orders and production, short of market expectations of a 0.5-percent gain, said the Commerce Department Friday.
In late New York trading, the euro moved down to 1.2006 dollars from 1.2099 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound dropped to 1.5334 dollars from 1.5579 dollars. The Australian dollar went down to 0.8114 dollar from 0.8168 dollar.
The U.S. dollar bought 120.34 Japanese yen, higher than 119.70 yen of the previous session. The greenback went up to 1.0011 Swiss francs from 0.9943 Swiss franc, and moved up to 1.1750 Canadian dollars from 1.1618 Canadian dollars.