USD index (USDX) needs a boost from US data today

There are some quite important US economic releases on the calendar later today. They all fall due at 1.30pm GMT and cover the latest weekly jobless claims, Retail sales and Philadelphia Fed index. Retail sales are probably the most likely to move the markets and those are expected to show a slight fall in January, from the 0.6% rise in December. The forecast is for sales to have fallen by around 0.1% last month. That regional Fed index is expected to be at -8, from -10.6. Initial claims are anticipated to be largely unchanged, at around 218k. So, ahead of this the dollar index (USDX) is a little lower today, following what was a failure to reclaim the 105 handle yesterday. The  index peaked at 104.97 yesterday and later closed at 104.72. The low seen so far today has been set at 104.59. It is just off that low right now, but not above where it closed last night and clearly it could do with some good news from those economic releases and also data that would help to push US yields higher again.