Date: Monday 14 Jun 2010
The dollar’s safe haven status underpinned gains against the euro, sterling and the yen on Friday.Disappointing US retail sales data sparked jitters about the strength of the US recovery ahead of the weekend.
Retail sales figures for May fell by 1.2% when economists expected a 0.3% rise. They rose 0.4% the previous month. Sales excluding autos fell 1.1% against expectations of a 0.1% rise.
The dollar index, which measures the US currency against a basket of six others, rose to 87.469 on Friday from 87.080 the previous session.
A better than expected consumer sentiment went some way to sooth unease over the retail sales data.
The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment provided some cheer after the index surged to 75.5 in June, much better than the 74.8 forecast and from 73.6 in May.
Sterling was down sharply against the dollar and the euro on Friday after weak UK industrial output data from the Office of National Statistics.Manufacturing output unexpectedly fell 0.4% in April, suggesting that the economic recovery is struggling to gain momentum. Analysts hade been expecting a 0.5% rise after a 2.2% rise in March.
The euro recovered from an intra-day low of 82.10p ahead of the data.
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