Dollar Slips Lower, Euro Pushes Up to Day’s Highs
Investing.com - The dollar slipped lower against a currency basket on Monday, having posted its largest weekly gain in a month last week as investors turned their attention to U.S. retail sales figures for June later in the session.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a basket of six major currencies, slid 0.15% to 94.30 by 06:27 AM ET (10:27 AM GMT). The index rose 0.7% last week, its largest weekly percentage gain since mid-June.
Demand for the dollar continued to be underpinned as the risk of a further escalation in trade conflict and soft economic data out of China kept investors cautious.
Data overnight showed that China’s economy slowed in line with expectations in the second quarter, indicating that the trade dispute with the U.S. may be acting as a drag on growth.
Chinese GDP rose at an annual rate of 6.7% in the three months to June, down from 6.8% in the first quarter.
Also Monday, China said it had filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization over a U.S. threat to slap 10% tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese imports.
The move came after U.S. President Donald Trump alarmed European leaders over the weekend by declaring that the EU is a “foe” given how it trades with the U.S.
The euro rose to the day’s highs against the softer dollar, with EUR/USD adding on 0.2% to trade at 1.1709.
The dollar was little changed against the safe haven yen, with USD/JPY last at 112.38.
Investors were looking ahead to June retail sales figures from the U.S. later in the day.
The International Monetary Fund was also to release its latest World Economic Outlook later Monday.
Sterling pushed higher, with GBP/USD rising 0.21% to 1.3263 as investors continued to watch ongoing Brexit developments ahead of more crunch votes in the UK parliament this week, with Prime Minister Theresa May facing a rebellion from Brexit hardliners.
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