Retail Sales in the US rose by 0.7% on a monthly basis to $625.4 billion in September, the data published by the US Census Bureau revealed on Friday. This reading followed August's increase of 0.9% (revised from 0.7%) and came in much better than the market expectation for a decline of 0.2%.

Further details of the publication showed that Retail Sales Excluding Autos were up 0.8% in the same period, compared to the market expectation of 0.5%.

"Total sales for the July 2021 through September 2021 period were up 14.9% from the same period a year ago," the press release read. 

Market reaction

The greenback seems to have started to gather strength against its rivals after this report and the US Dollar Index was last seen posting small daily gains at 94.05.