US Retail Sales Rise But Disappoint Estimates

April 14, 2015 Share Print 0

U.S. retail sales rose for the first time in four months in March, but the gain wasn’t enough to offset weaker spending during the winter months.

Sales at retailers and restaurants increased 0.9% last month to a seasonally adjusted $441.4 billion, the Commerce Department said Tuesday. That was the biggest monthly gain in a year, but was weaker than economists expected.

Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had expected total sales would rise 1.1% in March.

Retail sales fell 0.5% in February, a slight improvement from a previously estimated 0.6% drop.

Higher sales were largely driven by car purchases, which increased 2.7% last month. Excluding autos, sales rose 0.4% in March, after holding steady in February and declining 1.2% in January.

via WSJ

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Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse

Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.