US dollar dips after 2 day rally

The US dollar retreated mildly against most major currencies on Friday after rallying for two sessions amid the Federal Reserve's stimulus tapering decision. Although data and news coming out Friday were generally beneficial for the greenback, it fell slightly as investors locked profits from gains in previous sessions. The U.S. real GDP increased at an annual rate of 4.1 percent in the third quarter before the 16-day partial government shutdown, up from the previous estimate of 3.6 percent, the Commerce Department reported Friday. The growth rate is the biggest in almost two years. Bank of Japan's policy makers on Friday said after a two-day meeting that they would maintain monetary easing measures until annual inflation is stable at 2 percent. Meanwhile, Standard & Poor's downgraded the European Union's long-term rating to AA+ with a stable outlook, citing that the region's financial profile has deteriorated. The Fed announced Wednesday a reduction of its asset-purchasing program from 85 billion dollars to 75 billion dollars beginning from January. Supported by the reduction in Fed's monetary stimulus, the dollar reached a five-year high against the yen and climbed to the highest level in almost two weeks against the euro in the previous session. The Fed didn't rule out further reductions in the future if improvement in labor market continues and inflation moves toward its longer-run objective, but the Fed also indicated it may keep overnight rates near zero "well past the time" that the U.S. jobless rate falls below 6.5 percent. In late New York trading, the euro rose to 1.3671 dollars from 1.3656 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound decreased to 1.6333 dollars from 1.6371 dollars. The Australian dollar climbed to 0.8919 dollar from 0.8857 dollar. The dollar bought 104.04 Japanese yen, lower than 104.15 yen of the previous session. The greenback moved down to 0.8959 Swiss franc from 0.8983 Swiss franc and went down to 1.0661 Canadian dollars from 1.0662 Canadian dollars.