国际英语新闻：Dollar falls slightly against major currencies

NEW YORK, Jan. 25 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. dollar fell slightly against most major currencies on Monday amid uncertainties over U. S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's renomination.

Bernanke's term expires on Jan. 31. and U.S. President Barack Obama has nominated him as the Chairman of the Fed for the second term last year. The Senate will vote for it before the end of January.

Obama is reportedly to support Bernanke for a second term because of the appropriate measures taken by the Fed in dealing with the economic crisis. But some senators opposed the nomination, criticizing Bernanke's Fed for pumping a lot of money into banking sectors which allocate bonus after gaining profit.

A survey conducted by a U.S. gambling site indicated Bernanke's reconfirmation probability declined from 95 percent to 68 percent in several days.

Existing-home sales fell 16.7 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.45 million units in December from 6.54 million in November, the National Association of Realtors reported Monday.

The sharp loss was expected as first-time buyers rushed to complete sales before the original November deadline for the government tax credit. The key question is whether the second tax credit, which extended the deadline and applies to many current homeowners, will jump start sales, said analysts of the IHS Global Insight.

The euro bought 1.4158 U.S. dollars in late New York trading compared with 1.4138 dollars it bought late Friday. The pound rose to 1.6239 dollars from 1.6121 dollars.

The dollar fell to 1.0575 Canadian dollars from 1.0587 Canadian dollars, and fell to 1.0398 Swiss francs from 1.0418 Swiss francs. It rose to 90.29 Japanese yen from 89.85 Japanese yen.