(RTTNews) - The dollar jumped to a fresh 4-year high versus the euro Tuesday morning in New York as stock futures on Wall Street indicated a rough start to the holiday-shortened week.
Markets in the US are open following yesterday's Memorial Day holiday.
Chinese manufacturing data came in worse than forecast overnight, driving overseas markets sharply lower.
Stocks suffered their worst month since 2008 in May, sparking increased risk aversion and interest in the the safe haven dollar. A number of significant headwinds threaten to blow the global economic recovery off course, most notably the debt problems in Europe that have crippled the euro.
On the economic front, the Commerce Department will release its report on construction spending for May at 10.00 a.m. ET. Economists expect that construction spending registered a 0.1% growth during the month.
The results of the manufacturing survey of the Institute of Supply Management will also be released at 10.00 a.m ET. Economists expect the index to show a reading of 58.9 for May, slightly lower than the headline index of 60.4 reported for April.
The dollar rose to 1.2111 versus the euro, its highest level since 2006.
However, the dollar failed to make up any ground versus the sterling after pulling back last week. The dollar slipped to 1.4580, staying well away from May's yearly high near 1.4220.
The dollar was steady versus the yen, holding above Y91.
The seasonally adjusted jobless rate for the euro area edged up to 10.1% in April from 10% recorded in March, data released by Eurostat showed Tuesday.
Eurozone manufacturing recovery slowed significantly in May, data from the Markit Economics showed Tuesday. The final Purchasing Managers' Index stood at a 3-month low of 55.8 in May.
China's purchasing managers' index fell to 53.9 in May from 55.7 in April.
