NEW YORK, Nov. 16 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. dollar weakened in late trading on Friday due to softening of a U.S. Federal Reserve official's tone on hike of interest rate.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, decreased 0.48 percent to 96.4666 at 3:00 p.m. (2000 GMT).
U.S. benchmark short-term interest rate is close to "neutral" and further hike of interest rates shall depend on economic data, said Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Richard Clarida on Friday.
The Federal Reserve is targeted to have neutral interest rate in the processing of tightening monetary policy since October 2015.
In late New York trading, the euro increased to 1.1412 dollars from 1.1348 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound increased to 1.2830 dollars from 1.2796 U.S. dollars in the previous session. The Australian dollar rose to 0.7330 dollar from 0.7290 dollar.
The U.S. dollar bought 112.84 Japanese yen, lower than 113.59 Japanese yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar fell to 0.9997 Swiss franc from 1.0057 Swiss franc, and it fell to 1.3164 Canadian dollars from 1.3170 Canadian dollars. Enditem
