Dollar hits six-week high on solid data, safe haven demand [Video]

The dollar rose to a six-week high on Thursday as data showed a still-solid U.S. economy while safe haven demand on concerns about rising Middle East tensions and the impact of a dockworker strike also boosted the currency.

The greenback has additionally benefited from more dovish central bank expectations being built into currency peers, including the euro, sterling and Japanese yen.

Data on Thursday showed that U.S. services sector activity jumped to a 1-1/2-year high in September amid strong growth in new orders, though its measure of services employment fell, consistent with a slowdown in the labor market.

“Today is an example of how quickly the U.S dollar can recover,” said Juan Perez, director of trading at Monex USA in Washington. While Thursday’s data was “a little contractionary,” the U.S. remains the envy of other countries, he added.

Other data on Thursday showed that the number of Americans filing new …