The US dollar advanced against most major currencies Friday amid continuous market speculations about whether there would be a military strike against the Syrian government.

US President Obama said Friday he has not made final decision yet on Syria. Earlier on, Secretary of State John Kerry said the U. S. has "high confidence" that the Syrian government used chemical weapon against its own people but he also stressed that a US action would be limited in scope.

Although US economic data released Friday were generally soft, data from the euro zone also came in negative and led the euro to weaken against the dollar in the day.

US personal income edged up 0.1 percent in July, following a 0.3-percent increase in June, the US Commerce Department said. Personal consumption expenditures also rose 0.1 percent in July, in contrast to a revised 0.6-percent gain in June, the department added.

US consumer sentiment fell in August from a six-year high in the prior month. The final reading of the consumer sentiment index stood at 82.1 in August, according to a joint survey released Friday by Thomson Reuters and University of Michigan.

The statistics office of the European Union said unemployment rate remained high at 12.1 percent in July in the euro zone.

The real gross domestic product of the US increased at an annual rate of 2.5 percent in the second quarter this year, the U. S. Commerce Department announced Thursday. This is higher than the initial estimate of 1.7 percent released last month, but stronger economic growth may propel the US Fed to scale back its massive monetary stimulus later this year.

In late New York trading, the euro slipped to 1.3208 dollars from 1.3244 dollars of the previous session, and the British pound decreased to 1.5494 dollars from 1.5499 dollars. The Australian dollar went down to 0.8899 dollars from 0.8933 dollars.

The dollar bought 98.17 Japanese yen, lower than 98.26 yen of the previous session. The dollar moved up to 0.9309 Swiss francs from 0.9308, and it also rose to 1.0532 Canadian dollars from 1. 0529.