ForexLive North American wrap: Sales boost buck

US retail sales +0.8% vs +0.3% exp Rehn: Spain has 'open mind' on aid request Rehn: Eurogroup ready to act if conditions met FT: Greece looking for two-year extension EU split on ECB role in banking union PPI +0.3% vs +0.2% exp IBD/TIPP optimism 45.6 vs 46.9 exp Business inventories +0.1% vs +0.2% exp Greek bad loans rising Roesler: debt shouldn't be shared Fitch: US credit card delinquencies near lowest since 1994 CMHC: Canadian housing to moderate S&P 500 flat at 1403 CAD leads, JPY lags The yen was in focus today as it climbed to the highest in almost a month. The retail sales numbers may not have been as strong as they appeared but the threshold is low for optimism and USD/JPY cracked stops above 78.75 after the figures. Strong USD was a theme as the euro and commodity currencies (excluding CAD) fell in US trading. Euro buyers defended 1.2325 early on but that level later gave way down to 1.2316. Gold was hurt on dented QE3 expectations and touched below $1600. AUD/USD tripped stops below 1.0495 and continued lower below 1.0480 before recovering somewhat.