U.S. dollar falls amid trade tensions

NEW YORK, May 31 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. dollar index decreased against most other major currencies in late trading on Thursday, as investors meditated on renewed trade tensions.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said Thursday that the country will impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imported from the European Union (EU), Canada and Mexico from Friday.

The move is almost certain to draw a response from the EU, which has threatened to retaliate with its own tariffs on American products such as motorcycles, jeans and bourbon.

On the economic front, in the week ending May 26, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 221,000, a decrease of 13,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 234,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the Commerce Department said U.S. personal income increased by 49.5 billion U.S. dollars, or 0.3 percent in April. Disposable personal income increased 60.9 billion dollars, or 0.4 percent, and personal consumption expenditures increased 79.8 billion dollars, or 0.6 percent.

"Consumer spending was stronger than expected in April, but in a way it was also expected. That is, today's consensus was 0.4%, but the whole Street is looking for stronger GDP growth at some point this year in response to the tax cut. It was not going to happen without stronger consumption," said Chris Low, chief economist at FTN Financial.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, was down 0.07 percent at 93.999 in late trading.

In late New York trading, the euro rose to 1.1691 dollars from 1.1655 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound increased to 1.3290 dollars from 1.3282 U.S. dollars in the previous session. The Australian dollar decreased to 0.7566 dollar from 0.7575 dollar.

The U.S. dollar bought 108.68 Japanese yen, lower than 108.90 Japanese yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar was down to 0.9849 Swiss franc from 0.9894 Swiss franc, and it was up to 1.2958 Canadian dollars from 1.2876 Canadian dollars. Enditem