Dollar gains after U.S. retail sales fall less than expected
By Herbert Lash and Amanda Cooper
NEW YORK/LONDON (Reuters) -The dollar gained on Wednesday after U.S. retail sales fell less than expected in October, bouncing off its biggest drop in a year the previous day when cooler U.S. inflation data added to expectations that the Federal Reserve is done raising rates.
Retail sales slipped 0.1% last month and data for September was revised higher to show sales increasing 0.9% instead of the previously reported 0.7% rise, the U.S. Commerce Department's Census Bureau said.
Economists polled by Reuters had forecast retail sales would fall 0.3%.
The better than expected reading lifted the dollar, even though a weak reading on producer prices, along with Tuesday's consumer price index report, signaled a cooling economy that still suggests the Fed's fight against inflation is on track.
«Today's (retail sales) number doesn't really move the needle one way or the other, other than sort of convince you that things are definitely slowing down in the U.S. still,» said Brad Bechtel, global head of FX at Jefferies in New York.
The fourth quarter in the past two years has not been good for the dollar, which peaked in the third quarter of both 2021 and 2022 and sold off through to January each year, Bechtel said.
«I'm not necessarily saying that history is going exactly to repeat itself, but I don't necessarily want to be buying or getting long the dollar just yet,» he said. «We need to see more of this play out.»
The dollar index, a measure of the U.S. currency versus six others, rose 0.33%, off its two-month low of 103.98 on Tuesday. The euro was down 0.36% at $1.084, after touching its highest since August the day before.
Investors have all but wiped out the chance of another rate hike from
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