国际英语新闻：Dollar rises amid weak U.S. consumer confidence, Europe worries

NEW YORK, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- The dollar rose against most major currencies on Tuesday as a weak U.S. consumer confidence report and worries over Europe's recovery boosted safety-haven demand for the greenback.

The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index fell sharply in February by almost 10 points to a level of 46.0. Both the present situation index and the expectations index fell sharply, indicating that consumers lost confidence in current economic conditions and economic outlook.

The drop in confidence was connected with a confluence of unusual factors, including sovereign debt issues in Europe, slow improvements in employment market conditions and lack of a job stimulus legislation, said analysts of IHS Global Insight.

S&P/Case-Shiller home price indices for 10 and 20 largest metropolitan areas each rose for the seventh-straight month by 0.3 percent in December after being seasonally adjusted, the Standard & Poor's reported. Prices increased year-over-year in several major cities including Boston, Denver, Washington, D.C., San Diego, Dallas and San Francisco. However, home prices have further fallen with unemployment rate and foreclosures on record high levels.

Fitch Ratings downgraded credit ratings of four largest Greek lenders on Tuesday. The rating agency said Greece's economic crisis will hurt asset quality. Germany's IFO Institute for Economic Research reported that its Ifo business confidence index fell unexpectedly in February. The reports added to worries about the euro-zone economy, driving the euro lower.

The euro bought 1.3523 dollars in late New York trading compared with 1.3608 dollars it bought late Monday. The pound fell to 1.5444 dollars from 1.5489 dollars.

The dollar rose to 1.0557 Canadian dollars from 1.0417 Canadian dollars, and rose to 1.0828 Swiss francs from 1.0758 Swiss francs. It fell to 90.18 Japanese yen from 91.18 Japanese yen.