NEW YORK, July 24 (Xinhua) -- The dollar rose against the euro and the pound, but fell against the yen on Thursday amid weak economic data from U.S. and the euro zone.
The U.S. National Association of Realtors said existing home sales fell by 2.6 percent in June to its slowest pace since 1998. The decline was well beyond the 1 percent drop economists had forecast.
The Ifo business climate index of Germany fell to 97.5 points in July. It was a steeper decline than analysts had expected. Meanwhile, business confidence in France slid to its lowest level since May 2005. Britain's retail sales fell in June by 3.9 percent, its biggest decline in 22 years.
The euro bought 1.5659 dollars in late New York trading compared with 1.5681 dollars it bought late Wednesday. The British pound fell to 1.9845 dollars from 1.9976 dollars.
The dollar fell to 1.0370 Swiss francs from 1.0390 Swiss francs, and fell to 107.35 Japanese yen from 107.93 Japanese yen. It rose to 1.0131 Canadian dollars from 1.0107 Canadian dollars.
