Retail Sales in Perspective

The Commerce Department's retail sales figures came in relatively decent, with total retail sales coming in up 0.1 percent at $419 billion.  The second most quoted figure related to the monthly retail sales report is retail sales less the automobile sector, and this indicator coming in down 0.1 percent over the prior month, or $340 billion.

Retail Sales Figures Encouraging?

The market generally considered the today's retail sales figures as encouraging, in that the 0.1 percent growth beat economists' expectations of -0.3 percent.  The positive month over month growth also represents a movement in the opposite direction from...