NEW YORK, July 16 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. dollar went down on Monday as investors pared back their bets on the greenback ahead of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's first congressional testimony.
Powell is expected to deliver his semiannual testimony on the economy and monetary policy before the U.S. Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday.
Analysts said Powell is likely to reiterate the central bank's gradual monetary policy tightening, but any suggestion of caution on trade could spur market's appetite for risk again.
On the economic front, U.S. retail sales were 506.8 billion U.S. dollars in June, an increase of 0.5 percent from the previous month, and 6.6 percent above June 2017, the Commerce Department reported on Monday.
Meanwhile, U.S. business inventories rose 0.4 percent in May, according to the latest report from the Commerce Department. Sales jumped 1.4 percent in the month, while the ratio of inventories to sales dropped to 1.34 from 1.35.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, was down 0.25 percent at 94.512 in late trading.
In late New York trading, the euro was up to 1.1713 dollars from 1.1678 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound increased to 1.3231 dollars from 1.3228 U.S. dollars in the previous session. The Australian dollar climbed to 0.7418 dollar from 0.7414 dollar.
The U.S. dollar bought 112.31 Japanese yen, higher than 112.30 Japanese yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar fell to 0.9968 Swiss franc from 1.0021 Swiss francs, and it went down to 1.3141 Canadian dollars from 1.3162 Canadian dollars. Enditem
