NEW YORK, July 17 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. dollar weakened against its major rivals in late trading on Wednesday as market participants digested the U.S. Federal Reserve's latest beige book.

The beige book released Wednesday found that economic activity expanded at a modest pace from mid-May through early July.

"The outlook generally was positive for the coming months, with expectations of continued modest growth, despite widespread concerns about the possible negative impact of trade-related uncertainty," it said.

The beige book is a regular report of the U.S. central bank on current economic conditions across the 12 Federal Reserve Districts, based on information collected from various sources, including research reports and interviews with business contacts.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, fell 0.18 percent at 97.2283 in late trading.

In late New York trading, the euro increased to 1.1222 dollars from 1.1205 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound was up to 1.2436 dollars from 1.2406 U.S. dollars in the previous session. The Australian dollar increased to 0.7015 dollar from 0.7013 dollar.

The U.S. dollar bought 108.09 Japanese yen, lower than 108.34 Japanese yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar decreased to 0.9870 Swiss franc from 0.9886 Swiss franc, and it fell to 1.3041 Canadian dollars from 1.3068 Canadian dollars. Enditem