NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. dollar and U.S. Treasury yields climbed on Tuesday after solid U.S. retail data and an easing in U.S.-North Korean rhetoric, but Wall Street was held down by weakness in retail stocks.

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., August 14, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

After last week’s market jitters from escalating U.S.-North Korea tensions, investors were relieved to be able to look beyond geopolitics at least temporarily after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said he would watch the United States’ actions for a while longer before deciding whether to fire missiles toward the U.S. island territory of Guam.

Data for July showed the biggest increase in U.S. retail sales in seven months as consumers ramped up discretionary spending and boosted purchases of motor vehicles, suggesting the economy continued to gain momentum.

While the data was strong, however, worries about retailers' earnings and the outlook for home improvement stores dragged on the S&P, with Home Depot HD.N and Lowes Companies LOW.N representing the biggest drags on the benchmark.

“Retail’s the interesting sector, starting out with the economic retail numbers, which were much better than expected. But then this morning we’d some pretty bad retail company reports,” said Janna Sampson, co-chief investment officer at OakBrook Investments LLC in Lisle, Illinois.

Wall Street’s gains from the first apparent relaxation of tensions with North Korea in some time were limited as the benchmark S&P 500 index had already rallied on Monday, when it achieved its third 1 percent gain for 2017 after a weekend without military action or escalating rhetoric.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 5.28 points, or 0.02 percent, to 21,998.99, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 1.23 points, or 0.05 percent, to 2,464.61 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 7.22 points, or 0.11 percent, to 6,333.01.

MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD00000PUS shed 0.16 percent.

Benchmark U.S. Treasury yields hit one-week highs as investors pared low-risk holdings in reaction to the comments from North Korea and the U.S. retail sales and regional factory activity data.

Benchmark 10-year notes US10YT=RR last fell 15/32 in price to yield 2.2693 percent, from 2.218 percent late on Monday.

(For a graphic on global currencies vs. Dollar, click tmsnrt.rs/2kIQHol)

GREENBACK GAINS

The U.S. dollar rose to its highest in nearly three weeks against a basket of major currencies for two main reasons, according to Joe Manimbo, senior market analyst at Western Union Business Solutions in Washington, D.C.

“One was that the consumer had been a no-show in recent months,” said Manimbo, adding that “the specter of cooler heads prevailing on the geopolitical front is dollar positive, particularly against safe-haven rivals.”

The dollar index .DXY rose 0.45 percent, with the euro EUR= down 0.36 percent to $1.1736.

The Japanese yen weakened 0.84 percent versus the greenback at 110.57 per dollar, while sterling GBP= was last trading at $1.2865, down 0.76 percent on the day.

Spot gold XAU= dropped 0.7 percent to $1,272.46 an ounce.

Oil prices held steady after Monday’s heavy sell-off, weighed by the strong U.S. dollar - which makes oil more expensive for overseas buyers - and signs of weaker demand in China, the world’s second-largest consumer.

U.S. crude CLcv1 settled down 0.08 percent, though in late trade it rose 0.02 percent to $47.60 per barrel. Brent LCOcv1 settled up 0.14 percent at $50.80 and was last at $50.83, up 0.2 percent on the day.

(For a graphic on gold, yen and German debt, click reut.rs/2uLppS5)

(For a graphic on global assets in 2017, click reut.rs/2kD4BGA)

(For a graphic on global bonds dashboard, click tmsnrt.rs/2lmwqHC)

(For a graphic on world market cap, click reut.rs/2pHTxif)