NEW YORK, June 1: The dollar rebounded against major currencies on Friday, benefitting from a set of positive new data releases and an overnight Bank of Japan intervention to weaken the yen.

The euro fell from recent 15-month highs around 0.94 dollars to trade at $0.9336 against 0.9377 late on Thursday in New York.

The dollar rose to 124.25 yen from 123.35 late on Thursday.

The key data boosting the dollar were contained within the Chicago Purchasing Management Association’s PMI index of regional business activity, which rose to 60.8 in May from 54.7 in April, surpassing expectations of 54.5. The May reading is the highest level of the Chicago PMI since April 1999.

But Jeremy Hawkins, currency strategist at Bank of America, cautioned the rise was more likely to be a temporary reprieve.

The underlying issues still remain. The bearishness on the dollar remains. The data just took the steam out of the dollar selling, he said.

The Chicago PMI did not correlate well with the national index. The Chicago figure is good in itself but too much cannot be read into the data, he added.

The rest of the US data for the day went by largely unnoticed, dealers said.

Earlier, the Bank of Japan intervention to weaken the yen helped the dollar stabilize.

Japanese Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa confirmed the intervention, saying that recent movements in the foreign exchange market have been too rapid.

He cautioned that Japanese authorities were closely monitoring the market and would take appropriate action as necessary.

Intervention was at about 123 yen, following which dollar-yen reached 124 levels.

The pound gained on the euro but fell back against the dollar after the US data.

In late New York trade, the dollar was worth 1.5708 Swiss francs from 1.5605 Thursday.

The pound sterling was at $1.4556 after 1.4651 late on Thursday.—AFP