1st LD Writethru: U.S. dollar falls on soft housing data

The U.S. dollar decreased against most major currencies on Monday as the housing data from the country came out negative.

U.S. sales of new single-family houses in September 2015 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 468,000, well below market consensus of 549,000, the Commerce Department said Monday.

The greenback was further under pressure as market expectation for an interest-rate hike this year dims ahead of the Federal Reserve's policy meeting scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday.

Analysts said most investors anticipate that the central bank will not raise rates until 2016.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, was down 0.29 percent at 96.849 in late trading.

In late New York trading, the euro rose to 1.1046 dollars from 1.1006 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound climbed to 1.5347 dollars from 1.5323 U.S. dollars in the previous session. The Australian dollar increased to 0.7249 dollar from 0.7211 dollar.

The U.S. dollar bought 121.05 Japanese yen, lower than 121.40 yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar hiked to 0.9835 Swiss franc from 0.9795 Swiss franc, and it went down to 1.3164 Canadian dollars from 1.3183 Canadian dollars. Enditem