The US Dollar rose against the Japanese Yen during trade in the Asian session after data released on Thursday suggested that the US economy was able to maintain growth at a moderate pace toward the end of 2019. The US Census Bureau reported that retail sales maintained a 0.3% level in December on a month-over-month basis, while the retail sales control group figure surged for December to 0.5%, above the 0.4% expected and well above the previous reading of -0.1 (which had been revised downward). Unemployment claims also fell for the fifth consecutive week suggesting that the US labor market remains strong. Finally, the Philadelphia branch of the Federal Reserve wrote that the outlook in the factory sector would continue to improve.
As of 11:20 am in Tokyo, the USD/JPY was trading higher at 110.1960 Yen, a gain of 0.0418%, moving off the session peak of 110.297 Yen. The news failed to help the greenback against the Euro or Sterling, however, with the EUR/USD trading higher at $1.1142, up 0.0449% and the GBP/USD pair at $1.3078, a gain of 0.0375%.
The Aussie and Kiwi Dollars are also both moving higher after China’s National Bureau of Statistics reported that China’s 4th quarter GDP was flat at 6% on an annual basis, and recorded at 1.5%, unchanged from the previous reading, on a quarterly basis. China’s retail sales and industrial productions were also received positively by FX traders. Retail sales had been expected to fall to 7.8% but was unchanged at 8% on an annual basis, while industrial production rose to 6.9% annually, beating the forecast of 5.9% and the previous reading of 6.2%. The AUD/USD and the NZD/USD were trading at $0.6902 and $0.6649, a gain of 0.004% and 0.0016%, respectively.