1st LD Writethru: U.S. dollar slips ahead of Fed meeting

The U.S. dollar declined against most major currencies on Monday as investors were awaiting the closely-watched Federal Reserve meeting due to open later this week.

The Fed monetary policy meeting will start on Tuesday, which is expected to give out more clues on the timing of interest rates hike in its statement released on Wednesday..

Analysts said that the central bank may not raise rates until September at the earliest following the recent string of weak economic data from the country.

On the U.S. economic front, financial data firm Markit reported Monday that its flash reading of Purchasing Managers Index for the services sector slipped to 57.8 in April from a final reading of 59.2 in March.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major currencies, was down 0.17 percent at 96.753 in late trading.

In late New York trading, the euro increased to 1.0890 dollars from 1.0867 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound went up to 1.5231 U.S. dollars from 1.5174 dollars. The Australian dollar edged up to 0.7858 dollar from 0.7823 dollar.

The U.S. dollar bought 119.08 Japanese yen, higher than 118.87 yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar went up to 0.9557 Swiss francs from 0.9535 Swiss francs, and it dropped to 1.2087 Canadian dollars from 1.2173 Canadian dollars. Endite