The dollar continued its gains against the euro for the third consecutive day on Thursday (Friday morning GMT ) , aided by an increase in fourth-quarter U.S. growth forecasts and data more slowly than Europe .
At 21:00 GMT ( Friday at 4:00 pm ) , the euro was at 1.3742 dollars , compared with 1.3781 dollars late on Wednesday , AFP reported .
The euro hit a 29 -month peak against the dollar at 1.3931 dollar on March 19, but has since been given up because of fears of " overvaluation " when the U.S. economy exceeds the euro zone .
The U.S. Commerce Department raised its estimate of economic growth in the last quarter of 2013 to 2.6 percent from 2.4 percent , with the increase in consumer spending helped by a bigger -than-expected .
But in Europe , the European Central Bank ( ECB ) reported that bank lending to businesses continued to decline in February , dipped 2.2 percent from a year earlier .
The increase in dollars was not thorough , still fell against the British pound , Australian dollar and Canadian dollar , said Kathy Lien of BK Asset Management .
The pound rose to 1.6610 dollars from 1.6576 dollars , while the dollar slipped to 0.8272 Swiss francs from 0.8312 francs .
" Unfortunately, forex traders are not impressed by today's report and the lack of enthusiasm also seen in stocks and bonds , " he said .
Yen varied before the coming of the new sales tax , because the Japanese people reportedly rushed to buy before the tax went into effect on April 1 .
The dollar rose to 102.17 yen from 102.00 yen , but the euro fell to 140.41 yen from 140.57 yen .
Analysts are concerned consumer spending could decline, and the economy dragged , after taxes are implemented .
" Bearish sentiment surrounding the Japanese yen may gather pace entering into April as market participants see a tax increase consumer dragging economic recovery , " said David Song of DailyFX .
World oil prices soared on Thursday (Friday morning GMT ) for the second day running , amid concerns about the limited supply from Nigeria and more signs of strength in the U.S. economy .
The main contract , light sweet crude or West Texas Intermediate ( WTI ) for delivery in May , added 1.02 dollars from Wednesday to close at 101.28 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchangem AFP reported .
Brent North Sea crude for delivery in May rose 80 cents to stand at 107.83 dollars a barrel in London trade .
The gains came after Shell declared a " force majeure " on shipments of crude oil from the Forcados terminal in Nigeria as a main export pipeline sabotaged .
Meanwhile , the outlook for demand in the United States looked better after fourth quarter economic growth rose to an annual rate of 2.6 percent , with an upward revision comes from strong consumer spending .
A report by the U.S. Energy Information Administration on Wednesday showed that crude oil inventories in Cushing , Oklahoma , the delivery depot for the U.S. contract , fell for the eighth week to the lowest level in the last two years .
Crude oil supplies are tighter in Cushing, Oklahoma , the U.S. also supported oil prices even higher .
" While geopolitical events will affect the price of Brent , WTI prices will be guided by economic data from the U.S. , " analyst Ernst & Young , Sanjeev Gupta said .
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