1st LD Writethru: U.S. dollar climbs on Fed official's comments

The U.S. dollar rose against most major currencies on Monday as a Federal Reserve official raised expectations of an interest rate hike this year.

San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank President John Williams said on Monday that Fed policy makers could lift interest rates at any meeting ahead, as long as the economic data from the country came out positive. Moreover, he saw the labor market as steady and expected the unemployment rate of 5.4 percent to reach 5 percent at the end of this year. Williams'words supported the greenback on Monday.

With no major data on Monday, investors were still digesting the U.S. nonfarm payroll report by the Labor Department last Friday. Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 223,000 in April from the previous month, and the March nonfarm payroll growth was revised down from 126,000 to 85,000, the lowest level since June 2012.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major currencies, was up 0.22 percent at 94.999 in late trading.

In late New York trading, the euro dropped to 1.1158 dollars from 1.1206 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound rose to 1.5590 dollars from 1.5458 dollars in the previous session. The Australian dollar went down to 0.7901 dollars from 0.7918 dollars.

The U.S. dollar bought 120.10 Japanese yen, higher than 119.79 yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar climbed to 0.9335 Swiss francs from 0.9217 Swiss francs, and it increased to 1.2096 Canadian dollars from 1.2094 Canadian dollars. Endite