The US retail sales have been holding up pretty well during summer months, increasing by 0.5% and 0.8%. But the pace of the increase slowed in August to just 0.1%. This month, retail sales were expected to increase by 0.7%, but they only increased by 0.1% once again.
The core retail sales number was even worse. Core sales which strip out autos were expected to increase by 0.4% in September, but they declined by 0.1% instead. So, at first sight, this report was pretty horrible, but looking further into details, it doesn’t look that bad. Let’s have a quick look at the numbers.
| Actual | Expected | Previously | |
| Retail Sales | 0.1% | 0.7% | 0.1% |
| Core Retail Sales | -0.2% | 0.4% | 0.2% |
| Control Group Sales | 0.5% | 0.4% | 0.0% |
As you can see, this is a mixed report. Last month’s core retail sales and control group were both revised higher by 0.1%. But, sales in the control group increased by 0.5%. The control group leaves out auto sales, building materials and gasoline, which are sort of volatile.
This group increased by 0.5%, as you can see from the table above which saved the US Dollar. The USD lost around 15 pips immediately after this report was released, but it is climbing back up now, so no damage here.
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