U.S. retail sales growth likely to have moderated in December

The U.S. retail sales data for the month of December is set to release later today. According to a TD Economics research report, the retail sales are likely to have eased a bit, rising 0.1 percent sequentially.

This would be a fall from November’s 0.2 percent rise and a strong rise of 1.1 percent seen in October. The shutdown impacted released should continue to show a negative effect from lower gasoline prices and more measure growth in core sales.

“We pencil in the latter at 0.2 percent m/m, down from a year-high 0.9 percent jump in November. That said, we see risks to the upside given the resiliency of the US consumer on the back of a strong labor market and steady wage growth”, added TD Economics.

At 12:00 GMT the FxWirePro's Hourly Strength Index of US Dollar was neutral at 38.6769 more details on FxWirePro's Currency Strength Index, visit http://www.fxwirepro.com/currencyindex