NY Fed's GDP Nowcast rises to 1.5% for Q2 and 1.7% for Q3

According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's latest Nowcasting Report, the U.S. economy is expected to expand by 1.5% in the second quarter and 1.7% in the third quarter of 2019.

"News from this week's data releases increased the nowcast for 2019:Q2 by 0.2 percentage point and increased the nowcast for 2019:Q3 by 0.5 percentage point," the NY Fed said in its publication. "Positive surprises from higher than expected exports and imports data, the ISM manufacturing survey, and employment data accounted for most of the increase."

The US Dollar Index, which rose sharply on the back of strong employment data, was last up 0.6% on the day at 97.30.