U.S. dollar nudges lower

NEW YORK, July 17 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. dollar nudged lower on Monday while all Federal Reserve speakers went into a communications blackout ahead of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting next week.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, fell 0.08 percent to 99.8404 in late trading.

The market has almost fully priced in a 25-basis-point rate hike at the next FOMC meeting. According to the U.S. economic calendar, the U.S. Census Bureau will release June retail sales data on Tuesday and the Fed will publish industrial production figures.

Meanwhile, the Empire State Manufacturing Index released by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York on Monday fell by 5.5 points to a reading of 1.1 in July from the prior month, topping market estimates of -4.3.

For the overall index, 29 percent of respondents said that business conditions had improved over the month, while 27 percent reported that conditions had worsened, according to the survey.

The pace of last week's dollar decline "seemed unusually large," said Marc Chandler, chief market strategist at Bannockburn Global Forex in New York, noting that the market would steady and see a firmer dollar this week.

In late New York trading, the euro increased to 1.1242 U.S. dollars from 1.1234 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound decreased to 1.3082 U.S. dollars from 1.3102 dollars in the previous session.

The U.S. dollar bought 138.6470 Japanese yen, lower than 138.8260 Japanese yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar was down to 0.8600 Swiss francs from 0.8620 Swiss francs, and it fell to 1.3184 Canadian dollars from 1.3212 Canadian dollars. The U.S. dollar was down to 10.2316 Swedish Krona from 10.2416 Swedish Krona.