New York, Mar 17 (IANS): The US dollar traded higher against most major currencies as investors were digesting a batch of economic data from the country.

In late New York trading on Friday, the euro decreased to $1.2284 from $1.2303 in the previous session, and the British pound rose to $1.3939 from $1.3934 in the previous session, Xinhua news agency reported.

The Australian dollar decreased to $0.7712 from $0.7798.

The US dollar bought 106.09 Japanese yen, lower than 106.25 Japanese yen of the previous session. The US dollar increased to 0.9528 Swiss franc from 0.9516 Swiss franc, and it was up to 1.3095 Canadian dollars from 1.3057 Canadian dollars.

Following a decline of 0.3 per cent in January, US industrial production rose 1.1 per cent in February, well above market estimates of a 0.4-per cent gain, the Federal Reserve reported on Friday.

The number of job openings increased to 6.3 million on the last business day of January, beating market expectations of 5.8 million, the US Labor Department said on Friday.

The preliminary reading of US consumer sentiment in March rose to 102, higher than economists' estimates of 98.8, according to a survey released by the University of Michigan on Friday.

Meanwhile, US privately-owned housing starts in February were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,236,000, missing market consensus, the Commerce Department announced on Friday.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, increased 0.11 per cent at 90.231 in late trading.