Weak U.S. Retail Data Causes Investors To Seek Dollar – 15 April, 2020

Investors continued to drop riskier assets for the safe-haven dollar after U.S. data showed the severity of the coronavirus on the economy with retail sales seeing major slumps. The dollar was up 0.2% to 99.831 against a basket of six major currencies. Retail data showed an 8.7% dip in March, its lowest since 1992, and manufacturing data showing a loss of 6.3%, its lowest since 1946. Sterling slipped 0.2% to $1.2482, adding onto the roughly 1% shed the previous session. The euro fell 0.25% to $1.0881, and the dollar was up 0.4% against the yen to 107.86 yen. The Australian dollar was down 0.4% to $0.6293, shedding earlier gains, and the New Zealand dollar fell 0.6% to $0.5961.