News: FOREX-Dollar edges higher after US retail sales; debt ceiling in focus

(Adds details on retail sales, analyst comment, debt ceiling detail, FX table, byline, updates prices)

The U.S. dollar drifted higher on Tuesday after data showed retail sales in April were lower than expected but the underlying trend remained resilient.

The dollar index was last slightly up on the day at 102.43 =USD . Against the yen, the greenback was also modestly higher at 136.155 yen JPY=EBS

U.S. retail sales rose less than expected in April, though the underlying trend remained solid, suggesting that consumer spending likely remained strong early in the second quarter.

"It was a rebound after two soft months, which suggests that consumer spending is still holding up," said Vassili Serebriakov, FX strategist at UBS.

"Consumer spending has been the strongest component of the economy at the moment. And we have seen business confidence indicators are much weaker than consumer indicators and this report is consistent with that."

Currency investors though remained on tenterhooks amid a slew of event risks including an important meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and Republican House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy with a little more than two weeks to go before the U.S. government could run short of money to pay its bills.

"There is maybe some potential news on the debt ceiling today. Chances are that this is going to be pushed closer to the deadline, which is early next month," Serebriakov said.

"So the market should remain in a range. I don't really see any direction impulse here."

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	Currency bid prices at 9:30AM (1330 GMT) 

 Description	  RIC		 Last		   U.S. Close  Pct Change	 YTD Pct	   High Bid	Low Bid 
											  Previous				   Change					
											  Session											  
 Dollar index	  =USD	   102.4200	   102.4300	+0.01%		 -1.034%	   +102.5700   +102.1900 
 Euro/Dollar	   EUR=EBS	$1.0875		$1.0874	 +0.01%		 +1.49%		+$1.0905	+$1.0863 
 Dollar/Yen		JPY=EBS	136.1900	   136.0950	+0.08%		 +3.88%		+136.2250   +135.6800 
 Euro/Yen		  EURJPY=	148.11		 148.01	  +0.07%		 +5.57%		+148.2400   +147.6200 
 Dollar/Swiss	  CHF=EBS	0.8953		 0.8956	  -0.03%		 -3.17%		+0.8962	 +0.8920 
 Sterling/Dollar   GBP=D3	 $1.2505		$1.2531	 -0.20%		 +3.42%		+$1.2546	+$1.2466 
 Dollar/Canadian   CAD=D3	 1.3417		 1.3466	  -0.36%		 -0.97%		+1.3493	 +1.3410 
 Aussie/Dollar	 AUD=D3	 $0.6677		$0.6700	 -0.35%		 -2.05%		+$0.6710	+$0.6666 
 Euro/Swiss		EURCHF=	0.9737		 0.9739	  -0.02%		 -1.60%		+0.9742	 +0.9720 
 Euro/Sterling	 EURGBP=	0.8694		 0.8678	  +0.18%		 -1.70%		+0.8718	 +0.8680 
 NZ				NZD=D3	 $0.6240		$0.6243	 -0.04%		 -1.72%		+$0.6260	+$0.6228 
 Dollar/Dollar																					 

 Dollar/Norway	 NOK=D3	 10.6610		10.6000	 +0.71%		 +8.77%		+10.6720	+10.5930 
 Euro/Norway	   EURNOK=	11.5903		11.5214	 +0.60%		 +10.45%	   +11.6190	+11.5195 
 Dollar/Sweden	 SEK=	   10.3779		10.3480	 +0.33%		 -0.29%		+10.3837	+10.3188 
 Euro/Sweden	   EURSEK=	11.2822		11.2454	 +0.33%		 +1.19%		+11.2944	+11.2411