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NEW YORK: The US dollar was generally firm on Thursday, getting modest support from better-than-expected US growth figures which suggested that fears of a US recession may have been overblown.
The euro - suffering from weak German data this week - fell back to 1.4708 dollars at 2100 GMT after 1.4737 dollars in New York late on Wednesday.
Against the Japanese currency, the dollar was virtually unchanged at 109.46 yen from 109.47.
Dealers said second quarter US growth of 3.3 percent, up from an initial 1.9 percent estimate, followed a surprise pick-up in durable goods orders and consumer sentiment earlier in the week to show a US economy doing well.
The markets had expected a revision to 2.7 percent, well ahead of the 0.9 percent rate of the first three months of the year, as exports grew sharply.
While stocks rallied sharply, reaction on the currency markets was more muted as traders viewed the growth spurt as transitory since much of the growth was from exports fuelled by a weak dollar.
"Export growth may stall in the second half of the year in response the dollar's recent rise," said Hilary Love at PNC Bank.
Chris Lafakis at Economy.com said the greenback was "suffering from the lingering effects" of hawkish comments from European Central Bank council member Axel Weber on Wednesday.
Weber suggested the ECB is not yet ready to cut rates in response to softer conditions in the eurozone.
"A fair bit of easing was already priced in with regard to the ECB, and investors are now reconsidering their decisions to go short on the euro and long on the US dollar," Lafakis said.
"The dollar has moved powerfully higher since it bottomed out against the major currencies, and a respite is in order."
The euro had made early gains to recover further from six month lows of below 1.46 dollars, reached on Tuesday in the wake of downbeat consumer confidence and business sentiment surveys in Germany, Europe's biggest economy.
The markets had been expecting rate cuts from the ECB and hikes from the US Federal Reserve to narrow the rate differential in the two regions.
Elsewhere, the British pound remained close to two-year lows versus the dollar as a survey from the Nationwide bank revealed that house prices continued to slump in August.
"The sharp decline in house prices persisted into August as weak buyer confidence and tight lending criteria continued to weigh on the market," said Capital Economics analyst Seema Shah.
In late New York trade, the pound was at 1.8295 dollars after 1.8359 on Wednesday.
The dollar stood at 1.0986 Swiss francs from 1.0965 on Wednesday. - AFP/de
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