The data released today within the United States clarified the positive performance of the US retail sales data during last October, as the US retail sales index recorded growth of 1.3%, which is better than the market expectations of the index growing by 1.0%, while the last reading of the index had stabilized at zero levels during last September.

At the same time, the core retail sales index data came higher than market expectations, as the index rose by 1.3% in the same period, compared to market expectations that the index would record growth of only 0.5%. The previous reading of the index had recorded growth of 0.1% during last September.

It is worth noting that this retail sales index measures the change in the total value of sales at the retail level. Therefore, this data provides an early view of consumer spending data on which most economic activity is based. Higher than expected data positively reflects on the movements of the US dollar and vice versa.