NEW YORK, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. dollar gained in late trading on Wednesday, as U.S. retail sales fell for the first time in seven months in October but less than expected.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, rose 0.32 percent to 104.3930 in late trading.
The U.S. Commerce Department reported a 0.1 percent decrease in retail sales in October compared to the previous month, adjusting for seasonality but not factoring in inflation. This marked the first monthly decline since March, but the decrease was less than what economists had anticipated.
The U.S. producer price index (PPI) in October demonstrated a lower-than-anticipated year-on-year increase of 1.3 percent, failing to meet the projected rise of 1.9 percent.
The core PPI in October also fell short of expectations, registering a year-on-year figure of 2.4 percent instead of the projected 2.7 percent and declining from the previous reading of 2.7 percent in September.
"The October retail sales report underscores our view that slowing income growth, depleted excess savings and restrictive credit conditions are constraining consumers' willingness and ability to spend," said Kathy Bostjancic, chief economist at Nationwide. "Along with the encouraging October CPI report and healthy slowing in employment growth, the pullback in consumer spending after the summer spending spree will give the Federal Reserve comfort that their restrictive monetary policy stance is reducing inflationary pressures."
In late New York trading, the euro decreased to 1.0846 U.S. dollars from 1.0881 U.S. dollars in the previous session, and the British pound was down to 1.2418 U.S. dollars from 1.2499 U.S. dollars.
The U.S. dollar bought 151.3750 Japanese yen, higher than 150.3420 Japanese yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar fell to 0.8883 Swiss francs from 0.8887 Swiss francs, and it declined to 1.3685 Canadian dollars from 1.3696 Canadian dollars. The U.S. dollar sank to 10.5331 Swedish krona from 10.5776 Swedish krona.
