1st LD Writethru: U.S. dollar falls on downbeat data

The U.S. dollar decreased against most major currencies on Wednesday as economic data from the country came out negative.

U.S. retail and food services sales fell 0.9 percent in December 2014 on a seasonally adjusted basis, the sharpest decline since January 2014, said the U.S. Commerce Department on Wednesday. The slump far exceeded analysts' expectation of a 0.1 percent drop.

In a separate report, the department said that U.S. business inventories were up 0.2 percent in November 2014 from October 2014, lower than market consensus of a 0.3 percent gain.

Additionally, the price index for U.S. imports went down 2.5 percent in December 2014, the biggest decline in six years, the U. S. Labor Department reported on Wednesday. Meanwhile, export prices fell 1.2 percent last month.

Analysts said the overall weak data, especially the surprise drop in U.S. retail sales, had spurred market speculation that the Federal Reserve may not raise interest rate before the end of 2015.

The Japanese yen advanced against the U.S. dollar for a fourth consecutive session as investors' demand for safe-haven assets increased in face of sluggish equity markets.

The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against six major currencies, was down 0.20 percent at 92.125 in late trading.

In late New York trading, the euro moved up to 1.1778 dollars from 1.1764 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound climbed to 1.5220 dollars from 1.5146 dollars. The Australian dollar went down to 0.8148 dollars from 0.8154 dollars.

The U.S. dollar bought 117.30 Japanese yen, lower than 117.73 yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar fell to 1.0197 Swiss francs from 1.0209 Swiss francs, and it slipped to 1.1959 Canadian dollars from 1.1966 Canadian dollars. Endite