The U.S. Commerce Department reported Friday that the country’s retail and food services sales for January were 449.9 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of 0.2 percent from the previous month, and 3.4 percent above January 2015.
The latest reading was in line with market consensus and renewed investors’ expectation for the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates this year.
The greenback inched up 0.8 percent against the Japanese yen during the session on Friday. The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers,was up 0.42 percent at 95.967 in late trading.
In late New York trading, the euro fell to 1.1256 dollars from 1.1338 dollars of the previous session, and the British pound increased to 1.4515 dollars from 1.4472 dollars. The Australian dollar went up to 0.7103 dollars from 0.7096 dollars.
The dollar bought 113.24 Japanese yen, higher than 112.21 yen of the previous session. The dollar moved up to 0.9758 Swiss francs from 0.9711 Swiss francs, and it slipped to 1.3842 Canadian dollars from 1.3937 Canadian dollars. Enditem
Source: Xinhua
