Some good news from the US: retail sales are up 0.2% and with an upwards revision. The control group is up 0.6%, double the expectations. Also other figures look good.
The US dollar is slightly stronger across the board, with safe havens extending their losses
US retail sales for January 2016 were expected to rise 0.1% after a slide of 0.1% in December (before revisions). Core sales were predicted to remain flat after -0.1%, the control group to rise 0.3% after -0.3% and ex-gas/autos was flat last time. This is a top tier release as consumption is a huge part of the US economy.
Towards the release, the mood was improving, with the safe haven EUR and JPY retreating against the USD while oil and commodity currencies lifted their heads.
Data (updated)
Currencies
It seems to be mostly a story of the safe haven currencies being beaten.
We later have another look at the US consumer via the University of Michigan's preliminary consumer confidence figure for February.
