US January advance Retail Sales data now o ut 14 Feb

  • 0.4% prev
  • sales ex autos mm 0.0% vs 0.5% exp vs 0.1% prev revised down from 0.4%
  • sales ex auto/gas mm -0.2% vs 0.3% exp vs 0.4% prev
  • retail sales control group 0.0% vs 0.4% exp vs 0.3% prev

Soggy, soggy and ,er, soggy but notoriously fickle and subject to large swings.

US CPI the focus today and that's come in on the strong side forcing the greenback higher but USDJPY a reluctant mover at 107.38

GBPUSD down testing 1.3800 though and EURUSD down to 1.2280

This from the U.S. Census Bureau

  • Advance Estimates of U.S. Retail and Food Services Advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for January 2018, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, were $492.0 billion, a decrease of 0.3 percent (±0.5 percent)* from the previous month, but 3.6 percent (±0.7 percent) above January 2017.
  • Total sales for the November 2017 through January 2018 period were up 4.9 percent (±0.5 percent) from the same period a year ago. The November 2017 to December 2017 percent change was revised from up 0.4 percent (±0.5 percent)* to virtually unchanged (±0.3 percent)
  • Retail trade sales were down 0.3 percent (±0.5 percent)* from December 2017, but 3.9 percent (±0.7 percent) above last year.
  • Nonstore Retailers were up 10.2 percent (±1.4 percent) from January 2017, while Gasoline Stations were up 9.0 percent (±1.6 percent) from last year

Full report here

Long live cryptocurrencies? Five insights from the ASAC Fund