1st LD Writethru: U.S. dollar declines on weak data

The U.S. dollar fell against other major currencies on Monday as data showed the country's existing-home sales came out lower than expected.

U.S. existing-home sales rose 1.2 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.88 million in February, reported the National Association of Realtors on Monday. The latest reading missed market consensus of 4.94 million. "Existing home sales remained below the 5.0 million mark for the second month in a row as the housing market fails to find sustained strength thus far in the recovery," Sophia Kearney- Lederman, an economic analyst at FTN Financial, said.

"With housing supply tight and home-ownership rates remaining near historical lows in Q4 2014, it looks like it will be another year of slow growth for the housing market," the analyst added.

Moreover, the greenback was under pressure as investors were still digesting the dovish statement of the Federal Reserve after its policy meeting last week. The Fed noted that the U.S. economic growth had "moderated somewhat" since January and it said that "an increase in the target range for the federal funds rate remains unlikely at the April meeting."

Analysts said the announcement signaled that the widely expected June rate hike was mostly off the table. The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, was down 0. 90 percent at 97.031 in late trading.

In late New York trading, the euro rose to 1.0944 dollars from 1.0811 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound climbed to 1.4944 dollars from 1.4941 dollars. The Australian dollar increased to 0.7881 dollars from 0.7776 dollars.

The U.S. dollar bought 119.81 Japanese yen, lower than 120.17 yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar edged down to 0.9667 Swiss francs from 0.9765 Swiss francs, and it dropped to 1.2505 Canadian dollars from 1.2578 Canadian dollars. Endite