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NEW YORK, March 6 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. dollar ended higher against most major currencies on Monday amid rising market expectation for a rate-hike later this month.
Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen on Friday signaled that an interest rate hike in this month's monetary policy will likely be appropriate, if the economy progresses in line with officials' expectation.
"At our meeting later this month, the (Federal Open Market) Committee will evaluate whether employment and inflation are continuing to evolve in line with our expectations, in which case a further adjustment of the federal funds rate would likely be appropriate," said Yellen in a speech at the Executives' Club of Chicago.
The Fed is scheduled to hold its next monetary policy meeting on March 14 and 15.
Market expectations for a March rate hike were around 86 percent, according to the CME Group's FedWatch tool.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, was up 0.10 percent at 101.640 in late trading.
In late New York trading, the euro fell to 1.0584 dollars from 1.0606 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound dropped to 1.2237 dollars from 1.2283 U.S. dollars in the previous session. The Australian dollar decreased to 0.7583 U.S. dollar from 0.7592 U.S. dollar.
The U.S. dollar bought 113.95 Japanese yen, lower than 114.03 yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar climbed to 1.0120 Swiss francs from 1.0090 Swiss francs, and it edged up to 1.3414 Canadian dollars from 1.3391 Canadian dollars. Enditem
