By: Barbara
As reported at 5:08 p.m. (JST) in Tokyo, the U.S. Dollar and Japanese Yen both managed to hold on to their recent gains following the release of retail sales reports coming out of the United States, which caused the resurfacing of concerns about the health of the U.S. economy. Investors promptly moved out of riskier assets on that news. The data indicated that retail sales declined .4% in April, a worse than expected drop, and the second decline in a row. According to one economist, consumers continue to be worried about the economy and are holding on to their money; he doesn’t see any recovery until late (U.S.) summer or early fall, when the back-to-school crowd should return to the stores en masse.
The U.S. Dollar Index, a measure of the U.S. currency versus six major currencies, gained .1% to trade at 82.659 .DXY. The Euro fell .2% to trade at $1.3573 versus the U.S. Dollar; earlier this week it had briefly hit $1.3722, a 7-week high. Versus the Japanese Yen, the Euro, at one point, fell to 128.87 Yen, the lowest price in nearly 2 weeks before rebounding to 129.69 Yen.
U.S. Dollar and Japanese Yen see Gains on U.S. Retail Sales Slump
DailyForex.com