Updated: 14-Jun-18 09:44 ET
| May Retail Sales |
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| Updated: 14-Jun-18 09:44 ET |
Highlights
- Retail sales increased 0.8% in May (Briefing.com consensus +0.4%) and were revised up to 0.4% (from 0.3%) in April.
- Excluding autos, retail sales jumped 0.9% (Briefing.com consensus +0.5%) and were revised up to 0.4% (from 0.3%) in April.
Key Factors
- The only two retail categories seeing a decline in sales in May were furniture and home furnishing stores (-2.4%) and sporting goods, hobby, musical instrument and book stores (-1.1%)
- Gasoline station sales increased 2.0%
- Motor vehicle and parts dealers sales rose 0.5%
- The largest sales increases were registered for miscellaneous store retailers (+2.7%) and building material, garden equipment, and supplies dealers (+2.4%), which rebounded after a cold/wet month of April
- On a year-over-year basis, total retail sales were up 5.9% in May and up 6.4%, excluding autos
Big Picture
- The key takeaway from the report is that consumer spending on goods was strong in May, which will feed expectations for a healthy pickup in second quarter GDP growth.
| Category | MAY | APR | MAR | FEB | JAN |
| Retail Sales | 0.8% | 0.4% | 0.7% | 0.1% | -0.1% |
| Excluding Autos | 0.9% | 0.4% | 0.4% | 0.4% | 0.1% |
| Durable goods | |||||
| Building Materials | 2.4% | -0.8% | -1.2% | 1.4% | -1.5% |
| Autos/parts | 0.5% | 0.2% | 1.9% | -1.1% | -0.9% |
| Furniture | -2.4% | 2.7% | 0.7% | 0.2% | 0.1% |
| Nondurable goods | |||||
| General Merchandise | 1.2% | -0.3% | 0.4% | 0.1% | 0.0% |
| Food | 0.0% | 0.5% | 0.4% | 0.2% | -0.2% |
| Gasoline stations | 2.0% | 1.0% | 0.0% | 0.2% | 1.6% |
| Clothing | 1.3% | 1.2% | 0.1% | 0.5% | 1.0% |
| e*retailing/non-store | 0.1% | 1.5% | 0.9% | 1.1% | -1.2% |
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