Euro Falls Following Poor U.S. Retail Sales Data

World stocks and the euro fell on Tuesday, February 14, on weaker-than-expected U.S. retail sales data for January, according to Reuters.

U.S. retail sales rose 0.4 percent, according to the Commerce Department. That number, however, was lower than the anticipated gains of 0.7 percent by economists surveyed by Reuters. Still, core retail sales - which don't take into account gasoline, autos and business materials - increased 0.7 percent in January, the Commerce Department noted.

"The headline number was a little weaker than expected but the core figure was better, so net-net it was not entirely a negative report," Boris Schlossberg, director of FX research at brokerage GFT, told the news source. "We're still seeing month-on-month growth, and the data shows that the U.S. consumer is slowly but surely getting back on track."

The ultimate decline of the euro came after the currency rebounded earlier in the day on positive investor sentiment from Germany. Bloomberg reports borrowing costs also fell at Italian and Spanish auctions, which aided the euro.