Investing.com - The dollar edged higher against the euro and the yen on Thursday after falling in the previous session when data was released showing the largest drop in U.S. retail sales in 11 months in December.
EUR/USD dipped 0.11% to 1.1773, not far from Wednesday’s nine-year lows of 1.1726, and off Wednesday’s highs of 1.1845.
The dollar weakened across the board after official figures showed that U.S. retail sales fell 0.9% last month, the largest decline since last January after rising 0.4% in November.
The euro remained under pressure after an interim ruling by the European Court of Justice on Wednesday was seen as clearing the way for the European Central Bank to implement quantitative easing measures at its upcoming meeting on January 22.
The advocate general of the European Court of Justice, Pedro Cruz Villalon, advised judges to approve the ECB's Outright Monetary Transactions program, a measure which was launched in 2012.
USD/JPY was up 0.31% to 117.69, recovering from Wednesday’s one-month lows of 116.06.
Earlier Thursday, Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said the economy is recovering moderately and added that it will maintain its monetary easing program for as long as needed to achieve its 2% inflation target.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was up 0.11% to 92.42, not far from the 12-year peaks of 92.76 scaled last week.