New York, Aug 21 (IANS): The US dollar dropped against most major currencies as investors were digesting the dovish Federal Reserve minutes as well as the country's mixed economic data.

According to the minutes released, on Wednesday, for the central bank's July meeting, most participants "judged that the conditions for policy firming had not yet been achieved, but they noted that conditions were approaching that point".

Investors interpreted this as the Fed backing off from a September hike, which put the greenback under pressure on Thursday, Xinhua reported.

The mixed data also weighed on the market sentiment. In the week ending August 15, the advance figure for seasonally-adjusted initial jobless claims increased 4,000 from the previous week's revised level to 277,000, exceeding market consensus of 270,000, the US labour department said.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, was down 0.37 percent at 95.998 in late trading.

In late New York trading, the euro rose to $1.1193 from $1.1113 in the previous session, and the British pound fell to $1.5672 from $1.5681 in the previous session. The Australian dollar inched down to 0.7337 dollar from 0.7356 dollar.

The US dollar bought 123.48 Japanese yen, lower than 123.86 yen of the previous session. The US dollar dived to 0.9619 Swiss franc from 0.9655 Swiss franc, and dropped to 1.3097 Canadian dollars from 1.3107 Canadian dollars.