Currency Note US Dollar

Key US retail sales data out today

By Smart Currency May 13th, 2014

The dollar had a very quiet start to the week yesterday with no major data releases. The only calendar notes worth mentioning occurred after the close of the London session, which was the announcement of the Federal Budget Balance and a speech from Federal Open Market Committee Member Charles Plosser. As a result, we saw the dollar trade in a very tight range against the common currency, at the level following its gains at end of last week, which were caused by a European Central Bank (ECB) statement on interest rates. Against sterling the dollar had a tougher start, but by the end of day it had pretty much returned to its starting point.

Today there are some heavy hitters out in terms of data from across the pond. First up we have statistics on Retail Sales, followed by Business Inventories and finally the Redbook. Retail Sales data is the most significant of the three, and is expected to come in lower than last month’s figures. Any unexpected results are likely to spur movements in the dollar rate.

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