The U.S. dollar firmed against its major rivals on Thursday after data showing an unexpected increase in retail sales in the month of August raised hopes the Fed might consider reducing bond purchases this year.
The Commerce Department's data showed retail sales climbed by 0.7% in August after plunging by a revised 1.8% in July. Economists had expected retail sales to decrease by another 0.8% following the 1.1% slump originally reported for the previous month.
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Forex News
May 15, 2026 15:25 ET Apart from the confirmation of Kevin Warsh as the next Fed chair, the main news on the economics front this week included key price data from the U.S. and the first quarter economic growth figures from major economies. Both consumer prices and producer costs have started to reflect the effect of supply shocks due to the Middle East conflict. In Europe, GDP data was in focus, while inflation data from China dominated the news flow in Asia.