FOREX-Dollar slides vs yen as housing, U.S. stocks weigh

* Dollar falls vs yen, weighed down by housing news

* U.S. existing home sales fall 2.6 percent

* Soft euro-zone data hurts euro (Recasts, updates prices, changes byline)

By Vivianne Rodrigues

NEW YORK, July 24 (Reuters) - The dollar fell against the yen on Thursday, dragged down by disappointing news in the U.S. housing sector and steep losses on Wall Street.

However, the greenback was slightly higher against the euro, which came under pressure as soft data cooled expectations of higher euro-zone interest rates.

"The U.S. economy is by no means out of the woods," said Stephen Malyon, senior currency strategist at Scotia Capital in Toronto. "The run of strength the dollar has enjoyed over the past several sessions is unlikely to extend further as the market turns its focus to the deteriorating fundamentals backdrop in the U.S."

In late trading in New York, the euro fell 0.1 percent on the day to $1.5672 <EUR=>, well below its record high of $1.6037 set last week according to Reuters Dealing. It had earlier slipped to $1.5630, the lowest in more than two weeks, immediately after the German Ifo business climate report.

The Ifo report followed data showing declines in manufacturing and service sector activity in France, Germany and the wider euro zone. For more see [ID:nL24105706].