US dollar retreats amid economic data

New York, Oct 14 (IANS) The US dollar extended losses against most major currencies as investors mainly digested the newly-released economic data.

In late New York trading on Friday, the euro decreased to $1.1819 from $1.1843 in the previous session, and the British pound increased to $1.3291 from $1.3281 in the previous session, Xinhua news agency reported.

The Australian dollar increased to $0.7885 from $0.7831.

The dollar bought 111.87 Japanese yen, lower than 112.20 yen of the previous session. The US dollar lost to 0.9744 Swiss franc from 0.9748 Swiss franc, and it was up to 1.2482 Canadian dollars from 1.2460 Canadian dollars.

US Labor Department said on Friday its Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers rose 0.5 per cent in September on a seasonally adjusted basis. Over the last 12 months, the all items index was 2.2 per cent up.

US retail sales were lower than expected in September but recovered from the prior month’s 0.2 per cent slide.

The Commerce Department said on Friday the advance estimates of US retail and food services sales for September 2017, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences but not for price changes, were $483.9 billion, an increase of 1.6 per cent from the previous month, and 4.4 per cent above September 2016.

The consumer sentiment index, a survey of consumers by The University of Michigan, rose to 101.1 in October, far exceeding economists’ expectation of 95.