FX traders were casting a wandering eye ahead toward a long holiday weekend this morning, but the US retail sales report pulled their attention back to their monitors. After a disappointing -0.2% m/m reading in February, US retail sales surged 1.6% in March, with “core” sales (ex-automobile purchases) also coming in strong at 1.2% m/m. The stellar reading on the US consumer, combined with disappointing manufacturing data out of Germany and France, has reinforced the “best house in a bad global neighborhood” trade for the US economy and taken the US dollar index up to test key resistance at its 10-month high in the ... (full story)