NEW YORK, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. dollar decreased against other major currencies in late trading on Monday, as investors digested a batch of generally negative economic reports.
Advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for September 2018 came in at 509.0 billion U.S. dollars, notching an increase of 0.1 percent from the previous month, but well below market consensus of a 0.6-percent gain, the Commerce Department reported on Monday.
"The August-September combined picture is one of slowing consumer spending. Fed rate hikes are likely taking a toll as the tailwinds of the tax cuts are starting to subside," said Chris Low, chief economist at FTN Financial, in a note.
Meanwhile, business activity continued to grow strongly in New York State, according to firms responding to the October 2018 Empire State Manufacturing Survey.
The headline general business conditions index rose two points to 21.1 in October, pointing to a slightly faster pace of growth than in September.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, was down 0.27 percent at 95.0616 in late trading.
In late New York trading, the euro was up to 1.1583 dollars from 1.1555 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound rose to 1.3154 dollars from 1.3097 U.S. dollars in the previous session. The Australian dollar increased to 0.7138 dollar from 0.7105 dollar.
The U.S. dollar bought 111.89 Japanese yen, lower than 112.18 Japanese yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar decreased to 0.9873 Swiss franc from 0.9892 Swiss franc, and it was down to 1.2986 Canadian dollars from 1.3018 Canadian dollars. Enditem
