Dollar rises amid euro zone uncertainty, weak economic data

The U.S. dollar rose against most major currencies in late New York trading on Monday as the expectations of solutions to the euro zone debt crisis were mixed and data showed U.S. manufacturing activities were still weak. The international community pressured the European officials during G20 leaders'meeting to come up with a package of reforms to boost the size of the European Financial Stability Facility in eight days. However, German Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman warned that there is no quick way to resolve all the issues surrounding the debt crisis. The euro snapped its earlier gains and dipped nearly 1 percent against the dollar in late trading session on Monday. Meanwhile, economic data showed that manufacturing activities stayed weak in New York region in October. The Empire State index fell to -8.5 in October, only slightly better than the -8.8 in September, according to the Empire State manufacturing survey released Monday by the New York Federal Reserve. The weak manufacturing data added investors'concerns about the U.S. economic recovery and raised risk-aversion appetite which boosted the dollar. The dollar index gained 0.67 percent to 77.14 on Monday. In late Monday trading, the dollar bought 76.82 Japanese yen, comparing with 77.22 from late Friday. The euro fell to 1.3742 dollars from 1.3875. The British pound also fell to 1.5753 dollars from 1.5815. The dollar rose from 0.8930 Swiss francs to 0.8990, and also rose to 1. 0201 Canadian dollars from 1.0117.