NEW YORK, May 30 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. dollar index decreased against most other major currencies in late trading on Wednesday, as investors digested the newly-released Federal Reserve Beige Book as well as a batch of economic reports.
"Economic activity expanded moderately in late April and early May with few shifts in the pattern of growth," said the Beige Book released Wednesday afternoon.
According to the Beige Book, manufacturing shifted into higher gear with more than half of the Districts reporting a pickup in industrial activity and a third of the Districts classifying activity as "strong."
On other economic news, U.S. real gross domestic product (GDP) increased at an annual rate of 2.2 percent in the first quarter of 2018, according to the second estimate released by the Commerce Department on Wednesday. The economy grew at a 2.9 percent rate in the fourth quarter last year.
Meanwhile, the U.S. private sector added 178,000 jobs in May, missing the market consensus of 190,000, according to the National Employment Report released by the ADP Research Institute on Wednesday.
The ADP figure is widely seen as a pre-indicator for the non-farm payrolls report due on Friday.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, fell 0.71 percent at 94.145 in late trading.
In late New York trading, the euro rose to 1.1655 dollars from 1.1533 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound increased to 1.3282 dollars from 1.3247 U.S. dollars in the previous session. The Australian dollar climbed to 0.7575 dollar from 0.7502 dollar.
The U.S. dollar bought 108.90 Japanese yen, higher than 108.22 Japanese yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar gained to 0.9894 Swiss franc from 0.9883 Swiss franc, and it decreased to 1.2876 Canadian dollars from 1.3021 Canadian dollars. Enditem
