Investing.com - The U.S. dollar rose to the best levels of the day on Tuesday, nearing last week’s four-and-a-half month highs after a slightly stronger than expected U.S. retail sales report.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a basket of six major currencies, was up 0.58% to 93.09 by 08:50 AM ET (12:51 GMT), re-approaching last Wednesday’s highs of 93.26, the most since December 19.
The Commerce Department reported that while retail sales rose 0.3% in April the prior months figure was revised up to 0.8% from a previously reported 0.6%.
Core retail sales rose 0.3% last month, but April’s figure was revised up to 0.4%, from 0.2% previously.
The report indicated that consumer spending is on track to rebound after a soft patch in the first quarter.
The data helped push U.S. Treasury yields higher, with the yield on 10-year U.S. Treasury notes hitting 3.047%, the most since early 2014 on rising inflation expectations.
The dollar climbed to three-month highs against the yen, with USD/JPY up 0.51% to 110.21.
The euro fell to near one-week lows, with EUR/USD dropping 0.68% to 1.1846.
Earlier Tuesday, a report confirmed that growth in the euro area economy slowed slightly in the first quarter, underlining the European Central Bank’s caution about scaling back stimulus.
The pound was also lower against the dollar, with GBP/USD losing 0.55% to trade at 1.3481, within close reach of Thursday’s four-month trough of 1.3459.
The latest UK jobs report earlier Tuesday did little to boost expectations for a summer rate hike by the Bank of England, showing that unemployment remained steady while wage growth picked up only modestly in the three months to April.
The Australian dollar was the largest decliner against its U.S. counterpart among the major currencies, with AUD/USD last at 0.7465, off 0.82% for the day.
Meanwhile, NZD/USD was down 0.55% to 0.6873, a level not seen since mid-December.