Investing.com - U.S. retail sales recovered in January, coming off their steepest decline in nine years.
The Commerce Department said that retail sales rose 0.2% in January, above analysts’ expectations for a flat reading. But the figures offer only modest reassurance over the health of the U.S. consumer: December's figures, which were already the worst in a decade, were revised to show a drop of 1.6% in the final month of 2018, down from initial drop of 1.2%.
Taking account of everything, the figures show a "weak start" to consumer spending in 2019 and are consistent with expectations of a generally weak first quarter for the first quarter, Liz-Ann Sonders, chief investment strategist with Charles Schwab (NYSE:SCHW) & Co., said via
.
Yields on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury bond inched down two basis points to a session low of 2.63% on the news.
Core retail sales - which exclude automobiles, gasoline, building materials and food services and more closely correspond to the U.S. consumer spending component of gross domestic product - increased by 0.9%. Economists had forecast core growth of 0.4%.
The data come after a mixed employment report on Friday that showed solid wage growth and a drop in the unemployment rate in February, even though the headline nonfarm payrolls number fell short of expectations with the creation of just 20,000 new jobs.
The data overlapped with the U.S. government shutdown that lasted until Jan. 25 and had driven the University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment to its lowest level since Donald Trump was elected president.
The same index bounced in February, but the relief from the end of the government shutdown faded toward near the end of the month, the survey’s chief economist Richard Curtin said when the report was released.