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[marketmaven]

Dollar: "a little bit hammered" like a little bit pregnant

Dollar Crumbles After Retail Sales Data
Wednesday July 14, 10:42 am ET By John Parry
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The dollar fell against the euro on Wednesday after a report on U.S. retail sales appeared to show consumer spending running out of momentum, which analysts said would keep the Federal Reserve on a moderate path of interest rate hikes. Based on Wednesday's U.S. economic data, "the market believes the Fed will stay the course with a modest rate hike at each meeting for the rest of the year," said Paresh Upadhyaya, portfolio manager with Putnam Investments in Boston. "The likelihood of a 50 basis-points rate hike by the Fed has diminished: the continued weaker data support that view," he added. The euro (EUR=) climbed to session highs around $1.2421, according to Reuters data, up from around $1.2385 prior to the retail sales report. At mid-morning in New York, it was trading at $1.2411. Versus the Japanese currency (JPY=), the dollar was virtually flat at 108.75 yen, while against the Swiss franc (CHF=), the dollar was at 1.2266 francs, down 0.7 percent. Sterling (GBP=) traded at $1.8583, up 0.1 percent. "(Retail sales) is a weaker number than had been expected so the dollar is getting a little bit hammered here," said Susan Stearns, vice president for institutional foreign exchange sales with Bank of Montreal in New York. Consumer spending accounts for about two-thirds of U.S. economic activity.

API and DOE Statistics : DOE Continus to overstate inventories! The API reports that crude oil inventories fell 5.1 mln barrels, gasoline inventories rose 4.4 mln barrels, and distillate inventories rose 3.0 mln barrels. The DOE reports that crude oil inventories fell 2.1 mln barrels, gasoline inventories fell 200K barrels, and distillate inventories rose 2.7 mln barrels.