Dollar margins rise after US retail sales; Focused credit ceiling

TOKYO, May 16 (Reuters) – The U.S. dollar rose on Tuesday after lower-than-expected retail sales in April.

The dollar index was at 102.43 on the last day. Against the yen, the greenback was modestly higher at 136.155 yen.

U.S. retail sales rose less than expected in April, although the underlying trend remained firm, suggesting consumer spending will remain strong at the start of the second quarter.

“It’s rebounded after two soft months, which suggests consumer spending is still holding up,” said Vasily Serebryakov, FX strategist at UBS.

“Consumer spending is the strongest part of the economy right now. And we’ve seen business confidence indicators being much weaker than consumer indicators, and this report is consistent with that.”

Currency investors were on tenterhooks amid several event risks, including a key meeting between US President Joe Biden and Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Bills.

“There may be some potential news on the debt ceiling today. There are chances that it will be pushed closer to the deadline at the beginning of next month,” Serebryakov said.

“So the market should be in a range. I don’t really see any directional momentum here.”

========================================================= ===== ======

Coin auction price at 9:30 am (1330 GMT)

Reporting by Kevin Buckland Editing by Sri Navaratnam

Our Standards: Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.