The US dollar today weakened against its main peers as key macro data released from the US docket disappointed. The US retail sales data, the CPI and the University of Michigan consumer sentiment index all missed their respective market consensus figures, which put the greenback under renewed selling pressure.
The US Dollar Index, which tracks the greenback’s performance was trading below its opening price of 95.80 and was trading at a low of 95.24 at the time of writing.
The US dollar opened today’s session on a soft tone as markets awaited key macro releases from the US docket in order to determine the currency’s future direction. The annualized CPI report for the month of June released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics came in at 1.6% against the market consensus of 1.7% and the previous figure of 1.9%. The advance retail sales data released by the Census Bureau also missed expectations as it recorded a decline of 0.2% versus the expected 0.1% increase. These two figures increased the selling pressure on the US dollar.
Later, the University of Michigan consumer sentiment index was released, which came in at 93.1 versus the expected 95.0 and the previous 95.1. Although the US dollar was performing poorly initially due to Janet Yellen‘s dovish tone in her testimony before congress, the disappointing macro releases sunk the greenback.
The greenback’s future performance is likely to be pegged on the performance of other currencies and the release of the empire manufacturing data on Monday.
The GBP/USD pair was trading at 1.3076 as at 16:37 GMT having rallied from a low of 1.2946 prior to the releases. The USD/JPY was trading at 112.67 having dropped from a high of 113.57 earlier today.
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