U.S. dollar falls as Congress passes tax bill

NEW YORK, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. dollar declined against most other major currencies on Wednesday, as the U.S. House of Representatives passed a revised Republican bill, which cleared the Senate Tuesday midnight, to overhaul the U.S. tax code over three decades.

The House voted 224-201 to approve the 1.5-trillion-U.S. dollar package, which would impact nearly every part of the world's largest economy, affecting both large and small businesses, as well as families.

The House passed the tax bill Tuesday afternoon, but the Senate's parliamentarian found several provisions in the bill violated budget rules, forcing lawmakers to strip them out and requiring the House to vote again.

The Senate narrowly passed the revised bill Tuesday midnight with a vote of 51-48. Now the bill, without the support of a single Democrat in Congress, will be sent to President Donald Trump's desk for signature within days and to take effect in 2018.

On the economic front, U.S. existing-home sales surged for the third straight month in November and reached their strongest pace in almost 11 years, according to the National Association of Realtors Wednesday.

U.S. total existing-home sales jumped 5.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.81 million in November from an upwardly revised 5.50 million in October.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, decreased 0.14 percent at 93.313 in late trading.

In late New York trading, the euro rose to 1.1877 dollars from 1.1846 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound climbed to 1.3391 dollars from 1.3386 U.S. dollars in the previous session. The Australian dollar gained to 0.7666 dollar from 0.7663 dollar.

The U.S. dollar bought 113.41 Japanese yen, higher than 112.92 yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar advanced to 0.9866 Swiss franc from 0.9854 Swiss franc, and it moved down to 1.2828 Canadian dollars from 1.2877 Canadian dollars. Enditem