The euro was down slightly against the dollar on Monday as markets continued to be moved by upbeat data from the U.S. on existing home sales and were looking ahead to new home sales data. Friday, while the dollar climbed to purchase 118.15 Japanese yen from 118.05 in New York. But the U.S. currency climbed back slightly after the National Association of Realtors reported Friday that sales of existing homes rose by 3.9 percent in February, pushed higher by mild winter weather in the northeastern U.S. It was the largest one-month gain in nearly three years. Worries lingered, however, about the ailing housing industry as troubles mount in the mortgage lending market, and traders were looking ahead to data on new home sales being released later Monday for direction. "It's easy to see why many will be looking to the next housing reading ..." said David Jones, chief markets analyst at CMC Markets. "To indeed see if there's finally some leveling taking place in this market, or whether last weeks' reading was simply a one-off. Any suggestion that residential property is coming toward the end of its recent adjustment should be well received and arguably could offer further upside for the greenback as the day progresses."