1st LD Writethru: U.S. dollar drops despite upbeat data

The U.S. dollar declined against most major currencies on Wednesday despite upbeat economic data.

U.S. existing-home sales increased 6.1 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.190 million in March from 4.890 million in February, said the National Association of Realtors Wednesday. The latest reading beat market consensus of 5.045 million and the increase was the largest monthly gain since December 2010.

Jay Morelock, an economist at FTN Financial, said in a note on Wednesday that "The end of January marked an all-time low in the 30-year interest rate at 2.22 percent, having fallen from over 3 percent in November. Existing-home sales are measured a month or two after the contract is signed, making this March jump likely the product of the steep January decline in mortgage rates."

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, was down 0.05 percent at 97.951 in late trading.

In late New York trading, the euro rose to 1.0742 dollars from 1.0735 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound climbed to 1.5045 dollars from 1.4925 dollars in the previous session. The Australian dollar went up to 0.7772 dollars from 0. 7707 dollars.

The U.S. dollar bought 119.87 Japanese yen, higher than 119.70 yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar against Swiss francs rose to 0.9696 from 0.9551, and it dropped to 1.2227 Canadian dollars from 1.2289 Canadian dollars. Endite