Yen stronger on US sales, German prices

Yen stronger on US sales, German prices

Story link: Yen stronger on US sales, German prices

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The yen gained on the US dollar and the euro Tuesday on a report that retail sales declined in the US in March and ahead of a report due Wednesday which is expected to show that German wholesale prices were down 7.1 percent in March from the year before after having fallen 5.7 percent in February.

The US Commerce Department reported that retail sales were down by 1.1 percent in March after adding 0.3 percent in February.

In late morning trade in New York, the yen traded at ¥99.16 to the greenback while the Japanese currency was at ¥131.6341 to the euro.

At the same time, the dollar was up in relation to the shared currency, trading at $1.3275 to the euro.

The pound strengthened versus the US dollar and the euro as investors became more interested in risky currency deals after Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) said it made $1.81 billion in the first quarter, more than analysts expected.

The pound traded at 89.05p to the euro at late morning in New York while it took $1.4908 to buy a pound.

The renewed interest in carry trades, in which investors buy higher-yielding currencies in deals financed by lower-yielding currencies such as the yen, had some analysts convinced that the yen’s gains would be limited.