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14 Apr 2015
Dollar falls across the board on US retail sales, IMF forecast
FXStreet (Córdoba) - Dollar weakness was the theme of the day, triggered by below-expectations US retail sales figures and fueled by IMF downgrade of GDP outlook.
While US retail sales grew less than expected (0.9% versus 1.1% ecp) and NFIB business optimism index unexpectedly dropped in March (95.2 vs 98.4 exp), the IMF cut their US growth forecast for 2015 and 2016 to 3.1% versus 3.3% estimated in January.
EUR/USD briefly rose above the 1.0700 despite a story from German Handelsblatt doing the rounds, suggesting a EU/Greek deal was unlikely on Apr 24 as the Hellenic country refuses to implement labor/pension reforms.
GBP/USD rallied nearly 200 pips and peaked at 1.4800 but failed to clear the psychological level and settled just below.
USD/JPY fell for a third consecutive day also weighed by yen self-strength amid comments from Hamada, an economic adviser to Japan's PM, who indicated that the currency might have fallen too far and needed to retrace some of its losses.
Commodity currencies also took advantage of Greenback softness. AUD/USD rose to a high of 0.7648, while USD/CAD broke below 1.25 and hit a low of 1.2444.
US stocks ended mixed, with energy shares leading gains as oil broke above $54.00 a barrel.
While US retail sales grew less than expected (0.9% versus 1.1% ecp) and NFIB business optimism index unexpectedly dropped in March (95.2 vs 98.4 exp), the IMF cut their US growth forecast for 2015 and 2016 to 3.1% versus 3.3% estimated in January.
EUR/USD briefly rose above the 1.0700 despite a story from German Handelsblatt doing the rounds, suggesting a EU/Greek deal was unlikely on Apr 24 as the Hellenic country refuses to implement labor/pension reforms.
GBP/USD rallied nearly 200 pips and peaked at 1.4800 but failed to clear the psychological level and settled just below.
USD/JPY fell for a third consecutive day also weighed by yen self-strength amid comments from Hamada, an economic adviser to Japan's PM, who indicated that the currency might have fallen too far and needed to retrace some of its losses.
Commodity currencies also took advantage of Greenback softness. AUD/USD rose to a high of 0.7648, while USD/CAD broke below 1.25 and hit a low of 1.2444.
US stocks ended mixed, with energy shares leading gains as oil broke above $54.00 a barrel.