Dollar mixed against major currencies

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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The dollar was mixed against major currencies Tuesday after a disappointing retail sales report and at the start of a week of quarterly results.

The dollar gained against the euro, which traded at $1.3287, down 0.6% from $1.3368 late Monday.

But the U.S. currency slipped against the yen, down 1.3% to ¥98.82 from ¥100.10 late Monday. And it eased against the British pound, which rose 0.6% to $1.4940 from $1.4855 at the end of trading Monday.

"It is a mixed day, and it doesn't seem like there is one big theme going on," said Sacha Tihanyi, currency strategist at Scotia Capital. "Some of these big banks reporting good operating results is a signal that things are getting more back to normal there."

The Commerce Department delivered a surprising dour read on the retail sector, saying total sales fell 1.1% last month, compared with February's revised gain of 0.3%. Economists had been looking for retail sales to increase by 0.3% in March.

Two-thirds of the U.S. economy is driven by consumer behavior, so the worse-than-expected report spooked investors. Stocks fell and safe haven trades, such as Treasurys.

The U.S. dollar and the Japanese yen typically see increased demand in times of economic uncertainty, as investors consider the currencies a safe haven. "While the yen and dollar are stronger today, they are not stronger across the board, which suggests that safe haven buying is not fully in effect, further confirmed by the fact that global equities are more mixed," said Tihanyi.

European markets ended the session higher; Asian markets were mixed; and the U.S. markets were lower during the afternoon session.

The dollar was taking cues from Wall Street for a while, but "that equity market, currency market correlation has broken down in the past week, week and a half," said Tihanyi.