Greenback mostly flat on mixed data

Investing.com - The U.S. dollar traded slightly higher against its counterparts Monday, following stronger-than-forecast U.S. retail sales last month, but bullishness remained subdued amid ongoing Spanish bailout uncertainty.

The Commerce Department reported U.S. retail sales rose by a seasonally adjusted 1.1% in September, beating expectations for a 0.8% increase.

Retail sales in August were revised up to a 1.2% gain from a previously reported increase of 0.9%.

Core retail sales, which exclude automobile sales, rose by 1.1%, outstripping expectations for a 0.6% increase.

A separate report showed that the New York Federal Reserve’s index of manufacturing conditions improved to minus 6.2 in October from minus 10.4 the previous month, but remained in contraction territory for the third consecutive month.

The dollar pushed higher against the yen following the data, with USD/JPY rising 0.39% to 78.74.

Meanwhile, the dollar was almost unchanged against the euro, with EUR/USD falling 0.06% to 1.2945.

The euro remained under pressure amid some disappointment in markets after Madrid did not request financial aid over the weekend and a request for a bailout is now seen as increasingly unlikely ahead of regional elections on October 21.

Elsewhere in the euro zone, uncertainty over when Greece will receive its next tranche of financial aid remained a source of concern.

The greenback remained slightly higher against the pound, with GBP/USD dipping 0.04% to 1.6068 and was steady against the Swiss franc, withUSD/CHF inching down 0.02% to 0.9329. 

The greenback was broadly weaker against its Canadian, Australian and New Zealand counterparts, with USD/CAD slipping 0.07% to trade at 0.9790,AUD/USD rising 0.17% to 1.0250 and NZD/USD climbing 0.31% to 0.8189.

The Bank of Canada’s business outlook survey published earlier showed that companies are less optimistic on sales, employment and investment for the third quarter and are focusing on minimizing costs.

The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, edged up 0.04% to 79.80

In other news Monday, official data showed that U.S. business inventories rose slightly more-than-expected in August, climbing 0.6% compared to expectations for a 0.5% gain.