1st LD Writethru: U.S. dollar rises on Fed officials' remarks

The U.S. dollar increased against most major currencies Wednesday as several Federal Reserve officials signaled an interest-rate hike as early as next month.

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard said Wednesday that the central bank policy makers should consider raising interest rates at their next meeting in April amid sound inflation outlook. Philadelphia Fed President Patrick Harker also said Tuesday that he would like to see policy makers tightening borrowing costs "a little faster."

The greenback was firmly supported by the officials' hawkish words. The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, was up 0.43 percent at 96.057 in late trading.

On the economic front, U.S. sales of new single-family houses in February were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 512,000, roughly on par with market consensus, according to the Commerce Department Wednesday.

In late New York trading, the euro fell to 1.1184 U.S. dollars from 1.1212 dollars of the previous session, and the British pound dropped to 1.4115 U.S. dollars from 1.4201 dollars. The Australian dollar went down to 0.7528 U.S. dollar from 0.7615 dollar.

The U.S. dollar bought 112.41 Japanese yen, the same as the previous session. The dollar increased to 0.9749 Swiss franc from 0.9730 Swiss franc and inched up to 1.3206 Canadian dollars from 1.3047 Canadian dollars. Endit