Early trade in New York: Dollar jumps after dismal US data

Bleak US retail sales figures and a dramatic drop in New York state manufacturing data sent the dollar higher on Wednesday as investors fled risk assets for safe havens.

Wednesday's data underlined growing investor fears that the damage to the global economy from the coronavirus outbreak will be long and protracted.

The US dollar index, which had fallen in the four previous trading days, rose as high as 99.98, but had returned some of those gains later in the morning, last trading up 0.81%.

Against other traditional safe havens the dollar fell modestly: It was last down 0.25% against the Japanese yen and 0.54% weaker against the Swiss franc.

The Commerce Department on Wednesday reported that US retail sales suffered a record drop in March as mandatory business closures to control the spread of the novel coronavirus outbreak depressed demand for a range of goods, setting up consumer spending for its worst decline in decades.

"The dollar caught a stronger tailwind as record weak US data added to global gloom and kept investors chasing safer bets," wrote Joe Manimbo, senior market analyst at Western Union Business Solutions.

"The data is consistent with the coronavirus taking a growing toll on the world's biggest economy."

A fall in oil prices on expectations that production cuts by OPEC may not be enough to support crude during a global demand crunch also weakened riskier currencies, with the oil-exposed Norwegian crown and Canadian dollar down sharply. The Norwegian crown fell almost 2% against the US dollar, while the Canadian dollar was down more than 1.5% versus the greenback.