American retail sales bounce off

In October, American retail sales bounced off steeply because purchases of cars as well as building materials rallied, although data for the previous two months was updated downwards and the underlying trend hinted that consumer spending was probably decelerating.

According to the report from the Commerce Department, there were decent gains in sales ahead of the holiday shopping season, boding well for consumer spending as well as the overall economy because the fourth quarter gets under way.

As a matter of fact, retail sales headed north by 0.8% in October. In September, retail sales went down by 0.1% versus August’s 0.1% leap.

Market experts had foreseen retail sales surging by 0.5% in October. From 2017, sales edged up by 4.6%.

Without gasoline, cars, building materials as well as food services, retail sales surged by 0.3% in October.

September’s data was updated downwards to demonstrate core retail sales adding by 0.3% instead of surging by 0.5% as previously posted. In August, core retail sales slipped by 0.2% rather than being intact.

A firm labor market with a 3.7% unemployment rate is also backing spending. Moreover, the lowest jobless rate for 49 years is underpinning wages, with annual wage surge posting its biggest leap in 9-1/2 years in October.

The evergreen buck headed north versus a group of currencies following Thursday's data. As for American Treasury gains, they slipped, while equities Wall Street showed mixed performance.

The economy's strength was characterized by higher-than-anticipated quarterly sales from Walmart. As a matter of fact, the world's number one retailer had its full-year outlook raised.

Car sales went up by 1.1% in October having dived by 0.1% in September. In October, sales at building material stores went up by 1%.

However, spending at bars and restaurants slumped by nearly 0.2%.

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