Dollar holds upper hand after retail sales boost By Reuters – Investing.com

Dollar holds upper hand after retail sales boost By Reuters – Investing.com

By Hideyuki Sano

TOKYO (Reuters) - The dollar held near three-week highs against a basket of major currencies on Friday after a raft of strong U.S. economic data rekindled expectations for earlier policy tightening by the U.S. Federal Reserve.

U.S. retail sales unexpectedly increased in August, rising 0.7% from the previous month despite expectations of a 0.8% fall, while business sentiment survey by the Philadelphia Fed also showed a big improvement.