2020.02.1821:02:00UTC+00Dollar Gains Against Rivals On Safe-haven Appeal

The U.S. dollar firmed up against major currencies on Tuesday amid rising worries about the coronavirus outbreak and its impact on the global economy.

Disappointing data on German economic sentiment and Canadian factory sales also contributed to the safe haven dollar's uptick.

A report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York showed growth in New York manufacturing activity saw a notable acceleration in the month of February.

The New York Fed said its general business conditions index climbed to 12.9 in February from 4.8 in January, with a positive reading indicating growth in regional manufacturing activity. Economists had expected the index to inch up to 5.0.

The bigger than expected increase by the headline index came as the new orders index shot up 16 points to 22.1 and the shipments index climbed to 18.9.

The dollar index advanced to 99.47, and was last seen at 97.45, up 0.45% from previous close.

Against the Euro, the dollar strengthened to 1.0787 from a low of 1.0841, gaining about 0.45% after Germany's economic sentiment logged a steep fall in February.

The investor confidence indicator slumped to 8.7 from 26.7 in January, survey results from the ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research revealed. The latest score was the weakest since November, when it was -2.1.

The reading was much worse than the 21.5 economists had expected.

The current conditions index of the survey fell to -15.7 from -9.5 in January. Economists had forecast a score of -10.3.

Against Pound Sterling, the dollar was up marginally at 1.2999. UK employment increased further in the three months to December to set a fresh record, while joblessness remained unchanged, indicating the resilience of the labor market amid the uncertainty surrounding Brexit and the general election.

According to the data from the Office for National Statistics, the employment rate in the UK rose by 0.4 percentage points to a record high of 76.5%.

The Japanese Yen was little changed at 109.88 a dollar, after moving between 109.66 and 109.95.

The dollar gained against the Aussie, with the AUD-USD pair at 0.6687, compared to 0.6714.

The Swiss franc and the Loonie were down as well against the dollar. Against franc, the dollar was up 0.25% at 0.9833.

Against the loonie, the dollar was stronger by about 0.2% at 1.3261 after Canadian factory sales declined in December, falling short of expectations and marking a fourth consecutive monthly decrease.

Manufacturing sales were down 0.7% in December from the previous month to a seasonally adjusted 56.41 billion Canadian dollars ($42.58 billion), Statistics Canada said Tuesday. Market expectations were for a 0.7% advance, according to CIBC World Markets.

On a volume, or price-adjusted basis, manufacturing sales were down 0.4%.

Meanwhile, the previous month's data was revised to show that factory sales fell by 1% in November, compared with an earlier estimate of a 0.6% decline.