The U.S. dollar declined against most major currencies on Monday as recent soft economic data from the country dented market expectation for an interest-rate hike soon.
The Commerce Department announced Friday that advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for July were 457.7 billion U.S. dollars, virtually unchanged from the previous month and below market estimates of a 0.4-percent gain.
The Producer Price Index for final demand decreased 0.4 percent in July, seasonally adjusted, missing market consensus of a 0. 1-percent gain, the U.S. Labor Department said Friday.
Analysts said the downbeat data raised market concerns about the strength of the third-quarter U.S. economic growth. Meanwhile, investors were awaiting the closely-watched Federal Reserve minutes for its latest policy meeting due to release on Wednesday, to get more clues of the timing of Fed's further interest rate-hikes.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, was down 0.11 percent at 95.618 in late trading.
In late New York trading, the euro rose to 1.1185 dollars from 1.1171 dollars of the previous session, and the British pound slipped to 1.2874 dollars from 1.2911 dollars. The Australian dollar went up to 0.7682 dollars from 0.7650 dollars. The dollar bought 101.23 Japanese yen, higher than 101.14 yen in the previous session. The dollar fell to 0.9723 Swiss francs from 0.9742 Swiss francs, and it inched down to 1.2912 Canadian dollars from 1.2958 Canadian dollars.
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