Dollar rallies in Asia on upbeat US data

The dollar rallied against the yen in Asia Friday on the back of mixed US data, while weak eurozone manufacturing pressured the euro.In afternoon Tokyo trade, the greenback rose to 102.60 yen from 102.32 yen in New York Thursday, in tandem with a three percent rally for Tokyo's Nikkei stock index. The euro also rose to 140.73 yen against 140.37 yen in US trade, while it was unchanged at $1.3718, after a key measure of eurozone business activity weakened slightly. The Markit Economics eurozone purchasing managers index for February fell to 52.7 points from 52.9 in January, against expectations of a slight increase. "It suggests that the eurozone recovery lost a little traction in February, although the services data were slightly better," National Australia Bank said. On Wall Street, investors took comfort from gains in Markit's US purchasing managers index, while new jobless claims fell last week, although not as much as expected, according to AFP.