Investing.com - The dollar was steady against a basket of major currencies on Tuesday following the release of mixed U.S. data on retail sales and manufacturing as investors awaited congressional testimony by Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen later in the day.
The Commerce Department reported that U.S. retail sales rose just 0.2% in June, below forecasts for a 0.6% increase. Retail sales for May were revised up to 0.5% from a previously reported 0.3%.
A separate report showed that manufacturing activity in New York state rose to a four year high this month. The Empire state manufacturing index rose to 25.6 from 19.3 in June.
Analysts had expected the index to decline to 17.0.
Traders were looking to Ms. Yellen’s remarks later Monday for fresh indications on the future direction of monetary policy after last week’s minutes of the Fed’s June meeting revealed little new information on when rates could start to increase.
USD/JPY eased up 0.10% to 101.63, while USD/CHF was up 0.12% to 0.8927.
The yen showed little reaction after the Bank of Japan left its monetary policy target unchanged at the end of its two-day policy meeting earlier Tuesday and slightly pared back its forecast from growth in this fiscal year.
EUR/USD was down 0.12% to 1.3501. The pair touched session lows of 1.3587 earlier after data showed that German economic sentiment deteriorated unexpectedly in July, hitting the lowest level since December 2012.
The ZEW index of German economic sentiment fell to 27.1 this month from 29.8 in June. Analysts had expected the index to tick down to 28.0.
Sterling was close to almost six-year highs against the greenback after data earlier on Tuesday showing that the annual rate of inflation in the U.K. accelerated more quickly than expected in June bolstered expectations for a rate hike by the Bank of England.
GBP/USD was up 0.46% to 1.7162 from around 1.7080 before the release of the data.
Elsewhere, NZD/USD was down 0.58% to 0.8801, while AUD/USD slipped 0.18% to 0.9374.
The Canadian dollar was at close to three-week lows, with USD/CAD at 1.0733. The loonie, as the Canadian dollar is also known, remained under pressure after unexpectedly weak domestic employment data last week indicated that the country’s central bank will stick to its dovish stance on rates.
The US Dollar Index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, edged up 0.06% to 80.26.