1st LD Writethru: U.S. dollar slips on downbeat retail sales

The U.S. dollar fell against other major currencies Tuesday as the lower-than-expected retail sales data from the country dampened market sentiment for an interest-rate hike as early as September.

U.S. Commerce Department reported Tuesday that the country's advance estimates of retail and food services sales for June were 442 billion U.S. dollars, a decrease of 0.3 percent from the previous month. The latest reading was the weakest since February and missed market consensus of a 0.3-percent gain.

Analysts said the soft retail sales data raised market concerns that the U.S. economic growth may lose some momentum, curbing expectations for the central bank to raise interest rates in this quarter.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six other major currencies, was down 0.20 percent at 96.668 in late trading.

In late New York trading, the euro rose to 1.1009 dollars from 1.1003 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound climbed to 1.5629 dollars from 1,5484 dollars. The Australian dollar went up to 0.7449 U.S. dollar from 0.7406 dollar.

The U.S. dollar bought 123.33 Japanese yen, lower than 123.43 yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar inched down to 0.9452 Swiss franc from 0.9497 Swiss franc and decreased to 1.2746 Canadian dollars from 1.2748 Canadian dollars. Endite