New York, Apr 24 (IANS): The US dollar strengthened against its major rivals in late trading on Tuesday as market participants digested the newly-released economic data.

Sales of new single-family houses in the US were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6,92,000 in March, up 4.5 per cent from the revised February level, the Department of Commerce reported.

The reading beat the MarketWatch consensus forecast of a 6,56,000 rate, the Xinhua news agency reported.

Meanwhile, the seasonally-adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of March was 3,44,000, representing a supply of six months at the current sales rate, said the department.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, was up 0.36 per cent at 97.6433 in late trading.

In late New York trading, the Euro decreased to 1.1214 dollars from 1.1258 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound fell to 1.2937 dollars from 1.2980 dollars in the previous session. The Australian dollar was down to 0.7092 dollar from 0.7131 dollar.

The dollar bought 111.83 Japanese yen, lower than 111.93 Japanese yen of the previous session. The dollar was up to 1.0202 Swiss francs from 1.0160 Swiss francs, and it was up to 1.3441 Canadian dollars from 1.3344 Canadian dollars.