U.S. dollar declines as Brexit vote begins

The U.S. dollar decreased against most major currencies on Thursday as investors bet the U.K. will vote to remain in the European Union in the closely-watched Britain's Brexit referendum.

Voters went to polling stations Thursday to cast their votes to decide whether Britain will stay in or leave the European Union.

The ballot counting will start as soon as the polls close at 10 p.m. local time (2100 GMT). A total of 382 counting areas will be set up, with 380 located in England, Wales and Scotland, one in Northern Ireland and one in Gibraltar.

The outcome is expected to be officially declared at the Manchester Town Hall in the early hours of Friday.

According to six main opinion polls from June 18 to 22, the "Leave" camp was tied with the "Remain" camp.

The euro and sterling rallied against the greenback on Thursday as the market bet the "Remain" camp will win eventually. The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against six major peers, was down 0.17 percent at 93.552 in late trading.

On the economic front, in the week ending June 18, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial jobless claims decreased 18,000 from the previous week's unrevised level to 259,000, below market consensus, the U.S. Labor Department reported Thursday.

U.S. sales of new single-family houses in May 2016 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 551,000, missing market estimates, said the Commerce Department Thursday. This is 6.0 percent below the revised April rate of 586,000.

In late New York trading, the euro rose to 1.1355 dollars from 1.1302 dollars of the previous session, and the British pound increased to 1.4803 dollars from 1.4681 dollars. The Australian dollar went up to 0.7598 dollars from 0.7493 dollars.

The dollar bought 105.82 Japanese yen, higher than 104.43 yen of the previous session. The dollar slipped to 0.9574 Swiss francs from 0.9587 Swiss francs, and it inched down to 1.2785 Canadian dollars from 1.2845 Canadian dollars. Endit