U.S. dollar mixed on soft data

The U.S. dollar traded mixed against other major currencies Wednesday as the economic data from the country came out worse than expected.

U.S. sales of new single-family houses in January were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 494,000 units, missing market estimates of 520,000, the Commerce Department said Wednesday.

This is 9.2 percent below the revised December rate of 544,000 and is 5.2 percent below the January 2015 estimate of 521,000.

Meanwhile, the British pound extended losses against the greenback Wednesday amid rising concerns that the Britain may leave the European Union this summer. The sterling touched a seven-year low of 1.3876 U.S. dollars during the session.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six other currencies, was down 0.03 percent at 97.451 in late trading.

In late New York trading, the euro fell to 1.1013 U.S. dollars from 1.1014 dollars of the previous session, and the British pound decreased to 1.3922 U.S. dollars from 1.4022 dollars. The Australian dollar went down to 0.7203 U.S. dollar from 0.7214 dollar.

The U.S. dollar bought 111.77 Japanese yen, lower than 112.00 yen of the previous session. The dollar declined to 0.9884 Swiss franc from 0.9920 Swiss franc and dropped to 1.3703 Canadian dollars from 1.3758 Canadian dollars. Endit