US Dollar Index fails to capitalize on upbeat Retail Sales and falls sharply below 103.00

The US Dollar Index (DXY) has attracted plenty of offers that were capable of retreating bulls around 103.28 in the early New York session. The greenback basket has dropped vertically to near 102.80 despite households’ demand in the United States economy turning out to be resilient.

S&P500 futures are entering into the American session with significant losses generated in Europe as fears of a recession in the US are high despite a skip in the rate-hiking spell by the Federal Reserve (Fed). Fed chair Jerome Powell has paused its policy-tightening spell but has not ruled out more interest rates amid a battle against sticky inflation.

Retail Sales surprisingly expanded and Weekly jobless claims remain steady

US Census Bureau has reported that monthly Retail Sales (May) have surprisingly expanded by 0.3% while the street was anticipating a contraction of 0.1% but the pace of expansion has slowed against the prior pace of 0.4%. Scrutiny of the Retail Sales report shows that demand for automobiles was extremely solid though inflationary pressures have squeezed the real income of households.

Meanwhile, the Department of Labor has shown that initial jobless claims for the week ending June 09 have remained steady at 262K. The street was expecting a decline to 249K.

Fed announces a neutral policy with a hawkish dot plot

Fed Chair Jerome Powell didn’t announce victory over inflation as the core Consumer Price Index (CPI) is still persistent due to tight labor market conditions and resilience in consumer demand. While announcing the dot plot plan, Fed Powell confirmed two more interest rate hikes this year and cleared that rate cuts are not appropriate.

Investors should note that a skip in the interest rate regime by the Fed lacks optimism as the policy-tightening spell is not concluded now.