1st LD Writethru: U.S. dollar soars on rate-hike expectation

The U.S. dollar climbed against other major currencies Monday as market expectation for an interest rate hike as early as September rallied.

The euro dipped more than 1.40 percent against the greenback in late trading as the newly reached Greek bailout deal renewed market focus to the prospect that the Federal Reserve may raise interest rates in this quarter.

The Fed Chair Janet Yellen stressed in her speech last Friday that she expected that "it will be appropriate at some point later this year to take the first step to raise the federal funds rate and thus begin normalizing monetary policy."

The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against six other major currencies, was up 0.79 percent at 96.786 in late trading.

With no major economic data came out Monday, investors were awaiting the closely-watched U.S. retail sales data due on Tuesday.

In late New York trading, the euro fell to 1.1003 dollars from 1.1136 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound dropped to 1.5484 dollars from 1.5513 U.S. dollars in the previous session. The Australian dollar went down to 0.7406 U.S. dollar from 0.7447 dollar.

The U.S. dollar bought 123.43 Japanese yen, higher than 122.84 yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar rose to 0.9497 Swiss franc from 0.9409 Swiss francs and increased to 1.2748 Canadian dollars from 1.2688 Canadian dollars. Endite