NEW YORK, July 23 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. dollar index increased against most other major currencies in late trading on Monday, as investors bought the dip after the previous day's sharp decline.
On Friday the dollar index traded about 0.70 percent lower in late trading amid U.S. President Donald Trump's criticism about the Federal Reserve's current monetary tightening.
Trump said that he was "not thrilled" that the U.S. central bank is raising interest rates as the economy improves, adding that the Fed's policy tightening and the strong dollar could hurt the U.S. economy.
On the economic front, U.S. existing home sales fell for a third straight month in June as ongoing supply and demand imbalance pushed median sales price to a new all-time high.
The National Association of Realtors said on Monday that total existing-home sales decreased 0.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.38 million in June from a downwardly revised 5.41 million in May. With last month's decline, sales are now 2.2 percent below a year ago.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, rose 0.20 percent at 94.667 in late trading.
In late New York trading, the euro fell to 1.1691 dollars from 1.1725 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound was down to 1.3101 dollars from 1.3135 U.S. dollars in the previous session. The Australian dollar dipped to 0.7378 dollar from 0.7425 dollar.
The U.S. dollar bought 111.49 Japanese yen, lower than 111.55 Japanese yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar gained to 0.9931 Swiss franc from 0.9926 Swiss franc, and it rose to 1.3174 Canadian dollars from 1.3127 Canadian dollars. Enditem
