Dollar hits seven-week highs on heightened expectations for U.S. interest rates

By Ankur Banerjee and Harry Robertson

SINGAPUR/LONDON, Feb 27 (Reuters) – El dólar operaba el lunes cerca de un máximo de siete semanas, mientras los inversores hacían balance de los sólidos datos económicos de la semana pasada y reconsideraban rápidamente dónde alcanzarán su punto máximo las tasas de interés de UNITED STATES.

* Data on Friday showed US consumer spending rebounded strongly in January as inflation accelerated.

* Traders now expect the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates to around 5.4% by summer, according to futures markets. In early February, they expected rates to rise to a maximum of 4.9%.

* On Monday, the euro hit its lowest level against the dollar since January 6, at $1,053, as the US currency gained ground. It then reversed the trend and rose 0.1% to hit $1,055.

* The dollar index, which measures the performance of the greenback against a basket of six currencies, fell less than 0.1% to 105.11, after hitting a seven-week high of 105.36.

* The index is up 3% in February and is about to break a four-month streak of losses. Higher interest rate expectations tend to boost a currency by making the country’s fixed income investments more attractive.

* Losses del viernes mostraron that the underlying inflation of the gastos of personal consumption in Estados Unidos, that eliminates the volatile costs of the food and the energy, is located in el 4.7% interanual enero, frente al 4.6% December.

* In the eurozone, core consumer price inflation hit a record 5.3% year-on-year in January.

* The dollar was flat against the Japanese currency at 136.3 yen, reversing some of its gains after hitting a more than two-month high of 136.58 yen at the start of the session.

* The pound also held steady at $1.1946, after falling for three straight sessions.

(Reporting by Ankur Banerjee in Singapore and Harry Robertson in London; Editing in Spanish by Ricardo Figueroa)