Retail Sales Improve Across the Board. Rates Move Higher

Posted To: MBS Commentary

Retail Sales data has hit screens. It was much better than expected. Rates no likely. February, Retail Sales rose 0.3% vs. an expected decline of 0.2%vs. a revised for the worse +0.1% print in January (from +0.5%) . Excluding autos, sales rose 0.8%, crushing forecasts for a 0.1% improvement. Looking deeper into the data, percentage gains were led by the electronics/appliances category as well as food and beverage buying (snow storm help that out?). Miscellaneous store sales were up 2.5% too. Year over year, retail sales are up 3.9%. Remember how bad things were at this time last year.... Looking at the data in terms of actual dollars spent. Excluding autos...retail sales improved in every category except health care. Food and beverage and general merchandise sales were notably large, also note...(read more)

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