U.S. dollar climbs amid Fed minutes, data

The U.S. dollar rose against most major currencies on Wednesday as investors were digesting the newly-released Federal Reserve minutes and economic data from the country.

A number of Fed policymakers saw said a rate-hike could be appropriate "relatively soon" if the economic data permits, according to the minutes from Fed's November meeting released Wednesday.

"Some participants noted that recent committee communications were consistent with an increase in the target range for the federal funds rate in the near term or argued that to preserve credibility, such an increase should occur at the next meeting," the minutes showed.

Analysts said the overall hawkish minutes bolstered market speculation for an interest-rate hike in Fed' s December meeting.

On the economic front, U.S. new orders for manufactured durable goods in October increased 11.0 billion U.S. dollars or 4.8 percent to 239.4 billion dollars, well above market consensus, the Commerce Department announced Wednesday.

In a separate report, the department announced that sales of new single-family houses in October were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 563,000, missing market estimates of 590,000. This is 1.9 percent below the revised September rate of 574,000, but is 17.8 percent above the October 2015 estimate of 478,000.

The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against six major peers, was up 0.60 percent to 101.650 in late trading.

In late New York trading, the euro fell to 1.0545 dollars from 1.0616 dollars, and the British pound rose to 1.2446 dollars from 1.2396 dollars. The Australian dollar slipped to 0.7384 dollars from 0.7395 dollars.

The dollar bought 112.58 Japanese yen, higher than 111.23 yen in the previous session. The dollar inched up to 1.0172 Swiss francs from 1.0119 Swiss francs, and it climbed to 1.3488 Canadian dollars from 1.3448 Canadian dollars. Enditem