Retail sales beat Wall Street estimates in July, helping to ease fears of a significant slowdown in the U.S. economy.
Retail sales rose 1% in July. Economists had expected spending to rise 0.4%, according to Bloomberg data. Meanwhile, June retail sales were revised down to 0.2% from a previous reading that showed sales were flat from the previous month, according to Census Bureau data.
July sales, excluding autos and gasoline, rose 0.4%, above consensus estimates of a 0.2% gain. The control group in Tuesday’s release, which excludes several volatile categories and factors in gross domestic product figures for the quarter, rose 0.3% in July, above estimates of a 0.1% gain.
Motor vehicle and parts dealers led category gains, up 3.6%, while sales at electronics and appliance stores jumped 1.6%.
Also Thursday, Walmart raised its full-year sales forecast, with Chief Financial Officer John Rainey telling CNBC the retailer does not anticipate “any further deterioration in consumer health.”
The consumer spending updates come amid broader concerns about the health of the U.S. economy. The latest retail sales data, combined with better-than-expected inflation figures also released this week, have economists arguing that the Fed should shift its focus from the trajectory of inflation to concerns about the labor market and what its slowdown could mean for the broader economy.
“There’s a growing focus on growth data,” Nicholas Brooks, head of economics and investment research at ICG, told Yahoo Finance. “The evolution of retail sales and other indicators of consumer sentiment are going to become, I think, increasingly important indicators for markets.”
Josh Schafer is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow him on X @_joshschafer.
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