USD/JPY bounces after initially sliding towards 149.50 on weaker US sales

All those US data releases mentioned here earlier today have now hit the screens. The headline release; January retail sales were expected to fall by 0.1, from a prior gain of 0.6%. They have actually fallen further by -0.8%. The Philadelphia Fed index was expected to improve to -8. It has improved by much more than that, rising by 5.2, Weekly jobless claims (expected at 218,000) have come in at 212,000, so that is much better too. Another release not mentioned here earlier was the New York, Empire Index. That was forecast to improve to -12.5 from -43.7. It has actually improved as well, rising to -2.4. However, the immediate market focus has been on that miss in retail sales and the dollar has fallen back to fresh session lows on that number. The USD/JPY briefly slumped to 149.57 on this, but it is trying to rebound now. Personally I think, if we look through there sales data , this is actually all quite positive, especially the fact that prices paid in those surveys were higher than forecast. The USD/JPY is just now trading at 149.98