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

The U.S. dollar climbed against most major currencies Friday as investors were awaiting the closely-watched Federal Reserve meeting next week, in hope of getting further rate-hike signals.

The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), the policy-setting arm of the U.S. central bank, will meet next Tuesday to discuss the country's near-term direction of monetary policy.

Recent strong economic data has been bolstering market speculation for an interest-rate hike by the year-end.

Fed Chair Janet Yellen and some other Fed senior officials have also stressed several times recently that U.S. benchmark rates will go up later this year if the economy keeps expanding.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major currencies, was up 0.14 percent at 97.253 in late trading.

On the U.S. economic front, sales of new single-family houses in June registered at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 482,000, which was 6.8 percent below the revised May rate of 517,000, the Commerce Department said Friday. The downbeat report took some of the shine off the housing outlook.

In late New York trading, the euro fell to 1.0980 dollars from 1.1002 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound dropped to 1.5511 dollars from 1.5515 U.S. dollars in the previous session. The Australian dollar decreased to 0.7278 U.S. dollar from 0.7361 dollar.

The U.S. dollar bought 123.75 Japanese yen, lower than 123.81 yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar rose to 0.9627 Swiss franc from 0.9575 Swiss franc, and it inched up to 1.3068 Canadian dollars from 1.3038 Canadian dollars. Endite