By William L. Watts and Sarah Turner, MarketWatch
FRANKFURT (MarketWatch) — The dollar edged higher versus most major rivals, with the euro slipping after weaker-than-expected German retail sales data weighed on sentiment, strategists said.
The euro EURUSD -0.74% fell to $1.3213, down from $1.3305 in late trading in North America on Thursday.
The shared currency slipped below the $1.33 level after Germany’s Federal Statistics Office reported a 1.6% monthly fall in January retail sales. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires had forecast a 0.3% increase.
“The retail sales number is notoriously volatile and often revised, but the results for January clearly indicate that consumers continue to keep a very tight watch on their purse string amidst uncertainly revolving the region’s sovereign debt crisis,” said Boris Schlossberg, director of currency research at GFT.
“The news does not bode well for German growth in the first quarter of this year, indicating that the country may remain in economic contraction unless domestic demand improves markedly,” he said.
The euro was vulnerable to losses after failing to take out resistance at the $1.35 level earlier this week, he said.
The ICE dollar index DXY +0.67% , which measures the greenback against a basket of six currencies, traded at 79.134, up from 78.803 in late North American trading on Thursday.
While the dollar index held broadly steady on Thursday as well, the U.S. currency slipped against the euro after a trade body ruled that a restructuring of privately held Greek government debt didn’t constitute a “credit event.’
RBC Capital Markets strategists pointed to “continued support for risk sentiment, a soft landing story for China reflected in its PMI numbers, and a mix of U.S. data that did not threaten the monetary intravenous drip,” as buoying currencies on the riskier end of the spectrum.
The British pound GBPUSD -0.61% slipped to $1.5856 from $1.5954.
The dollar USDJPY +0.65% bought 81.50 Japanese yen, up from ÂĄ81.12 late Thursday.
