1st LD Writethru: U.S. dollar drops on Fed minutes

The U.S. dollar declined against most major currencies on Wednesday as investors were digesting the newly-released Federal Reserve minutes for its latest meeting.

According to the minutes released on Wednesday, Fed officials were divided over whether to raise interest rates in June during its March policy meeting.

"Several participants judged that the economic data and outlook were likely to warrant beginning normalization at the June meeting, " showed the minutes. Others suggested that a rate hike should be put off until later this year. There were also some saying the economy wouldn't be ready for tighter monetary policy until next year.

Analysts said the arguments among Fed officials confirmed the uncertainty in the timing of raising interest rates, which put the greenback under pressure on Wednesday.

After its March meeting, the Fed said in a statement that it will "be appropriate" to raise benchmark rate when it has seen "further improvement" in the labor market and is "reasonably confident" that inflation will move back to its target of 2 percent in the medium term.

The U.S. economic data came out overall negative since the meeting. Friday's weaker-than-expected nonfarm payroll report had triggered market concern that the recovery of U.S. labor market had stagnated.

In late New York trading, the euro decreased to 1.0799 dollars from 1.0831 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound rose to 1.4885 dollars from 1.4833 dollars. The Australian dollar went up to 0.7704 dollars from 0.7639 dollars.

The U.S. dollar bought 119.99 Japanese yen, lower than 120.37 yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar edged down to 0.9648 Swiss francs from 0.9653 Swiss francs, and it climbed to 1.2535 Canadian dollars from 1.2492 Canadian dollars. Endite