US dollar firms after retail sales | Forexlive

The US dollar firmed in the aftermath of the US retail sales report. The headlines in the data were weak but the control group at +0.4% beat the +0.3% consensus and the prior was revised up 0.1%.

USD/JPY initially dipped but then reversed on a closer look at the data.

It’s tough to trade the US dollar on economic data at the moment; there are so many crosscurrents including the trade war, the Middle East war, Ukraine and the budget bill. The Fed is sitting on the fence at the moment and it’s going to take a real jolt from economic data to get them off, not the retail sales control group missing/beating by 0.1 pp.

S&P 500 futures are down 30 points and that’s likely to be the driver at the moment with retail evidently piling into penny stocks. That’s a red flag.