Investing.com - The dollar pushed lower against other major currencies on Friday, after the release of disappointing U.S. retail sales data dampened optimism over the strength of the economy.
The greenback weakened after the U.S. Commerce Department said retail sales unexpectedly fell by 0.2% in August.
A separate report showed that the Empire State manufacturing index slipped to 24.40 this month from 25.20 in August, compared to expectations for a decline to 19.00.
USD/JPY was up 0.66% at 111.00, while USD/CHF slid 0.39% to trade at 0.9589.
The yen hit a seven-week high against the dollar late Thursday, following news North Korea fired a missile over Japan into the Pacific Ocean. It was the peninsula's second missile launch over Japanese territory in just over two weeks.
Japan reacted by saying that Pyongyang has “no bright future” and called for an emergency meeting of the U.N. security council.
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called for the international community to take “new measures” against North Korea, singling out Russia and China as the countries best placed to apply pressure on the regime.
Elsewhere, EUR/USD climbed 0.533% to 1.1982, while GBP/USD rallied 1.55% to a 15-month peak of 1.3605, still supported by the Bank of England's indications on Thursday that interest rates could rise faster than expected amid accelerating inflation.
The Australian and New Zealand dollars remained stronger, with AUD/USD up 0.30% at 0.8030 and with NZD/USD jumping 1.01% to 0.7292 after data earlier showed that the Business NZ Manufacturing Index rose to 57.9 in August from 55.4 the previous month.
Meanwhile, USD/CAD slipped 0.17% to trade at 1.2144.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was down 0.43% at 91.64 by 08:35 a.m. ET (12:35 GMT), the lowest since September 11.