U.S. dollar rises ahead of Yellen speech

The U.S. dollar climbed against most other major currencies on Wednesday as investors awaited a key speech from U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen later this week.

Yellen will speak at the Economic Policy Symposium at Jackson Hole, Wyoming on Friday. Investors expect to get more clues from her speech on the timing of a next rate hike.

On the economic front, slowed by frustratingly low inventory levels in many parts of the country, U.S. existing-home sales lost momentum in July and decreased year-over-year for the first time since November 2015, according to the National Association of Realtors Wednesday.

Total existing-home sales fell 3.2 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.39 million in July from 5.57 million in June.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, was up 0.26 percent at 94.786 in late trading.

In late New York trading, the euro fell to 1.1264 dollars from 1.1305 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound rose to 1.3228 dollars from 1.3192 U.S. dollars in the previous session. The Australian dollar decreased to 0.7608 dollar from 0.7617 dollar.

The U.S. dollar bought 100.45 Japanese yen, higher than 100.24 yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar rallied to 0.9670 Swiss franc from 0.9630 Swiss franc, and it gained to 1.2931 Canadian dollars from 1.2915 Canadian dollars. Enditem