BREAKING: US dollar slightly strengthens after retail sales data

US retail sales data for March was released at 1:30 pm BST.  Report turned out to be mixed and did not trigger any major moves on the markets. Highlights of the report:

• Headline: 0.5% MoM vs 0.6% MoM expected (0.3% MoM previous)

• Ex-autos: 1.1% MoM vs 0.9% MoM expected (-0.4% MoM previous)

Simultaneously to the release of retail sales, US weekly jobless claims data was released. The number of Americans filling for unemployment benefits was  0.185 million in the week ended April 9, compared to 0.166 million reported in the previous week. Today’s reading came in above market expectations of 0.172 million. Continuing claims reading, which lags initial jobless claims data by one week, dropped to 1.475 million from 1.523 million in the previous week, while analysts expected reading of 1.500 million. 

EURUSD saw relatively small reaction to today’s data inflation release. The most popular currency pair continued to trade around 1.0875 level. Source: xStation5