U.S. dollar falls on downbeat data

The U.S. dollar slipped against most major currencies on Friday as economic data from the country came out worse than expected.

The Commerce Department announced Friday that advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for July were 457.7 billion U.S. dollars, virtually unchanged from the previous month and below market estimates of a 0.4-percent gain.

The Producer Price Index for final demand decreased 0.4 percent in July, seasonally adjusted, missing market consensus of a 0.1-percent gain, the U.S. Labor Department said Friday.

Analysts said the downbeat data raised market concerns about the strength of the third-quarter U.S. economic growth.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, was down 0.21 percent at 95.656 in late trading.

In late New York trading, the euro rose to 1.1171 dollars from 1.1143 dollars of the previous session, and the British pound declined to 1.2911 dollars from 1.2965 dollars. The Australian dollar went down to 0.7650 dollars from 0.7702 dollars.

The dollar bought 101.14 Japanese yen, lower than 101.92 yen in the previous session. The dollar fell to 0.9742 Swiss francs from 0.9748 Swiss francs, and it inched down to 1.2958 Canadian dollars from 1.2974 Canadian dollars. Enditem