Dollar Mixed on Consumer Confidence, Home Prices

The dollar was mixed Tuesday after the Conference Board said consumer sentiment rose in May to the highest level since September, but home prices fell at the fastest annual rate on record in the first quarter.

The 16-nation euro slipped to $1.3987 in late New York trading from $1.4016 in New York late Monday, while the British pound rose to $1.5925 from $1.5922. The dollar inched up to 94.96 Japanese yen from 94.77 yen.

The research group's Consumer Confidence Index vaulted to 54.9 from 40.8, soaring past the 42.3 that economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected.

Investors watch the indicator for signs of whether consumers might start shopping more or making bigger purchases such as cars and homes. Spending by consumers makes up more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity.

Meanwhile, better-than-expected earnings results from such retailers as Sears Holdings Corp. and Gap Inc. have offered the latest evidence that spending has begun to stabilize, though overall business is still weak.

The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller National Home Price index reported home prices tumbled by 19.1 percent in the first quarter, the most in its 21-year history. Home prices have fallen 32.2 percent since peaking in the second quarter of 2006 and are at levels not seen since the end of 2002.

Also Tuesday, Germany confirmed that its economy, Europe's largest, contracted by a record 3.8 percent in the first quarter.

Confirming data first released May 15, the Federal Statistical Office said the economy had made its steepest quarter-to-quarter retreat since record-keeping began in 1970.

Alexander Koch, an economist with UniCredit in Munich, said the first quarter was likely the low point of the economic downturn for Germany, but did not rule out continued declines.

"The bleak labor market developments and the inevitable backlash in car sales even make another consumer recession likely ... although overall growth should stabilize in the second half of this year," Koch said.