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Retail sales top forecasts
Sales jumped 1.2% in May after a revised 0.6 percent decline in April, government says.
June 14, 2004: 9:36 AM EDT

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Retail sales rose at a solid clip in May, the government said Monday, boosted mainly by sales of cars and auto parts.

The Commerce Department reported that sales jumped 1.2 percent to a seasonally adjusted $335.8 billion last month, compared with a revised 0.6 percent decline in April.

Excluding autos -- which account for about a quarter of total sales and can fluctuate widely from month to month -- sales rose 0.7 percent to $257 billion from a revised 0.1 percent decline in April.

Economists, on average, had expected total sales to rise 1.0 percent and sales excluding autos to rise 0.4 percent, according to Briefing.com.

"The overall story is one of continued strength of the consumer but there are a couple of underlying stories here too," said Michael Niemira, chief economist and director of research with the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC).

"We did see a boost from gas prices, we're also coming off a big surge in building materials. So there were some big swings in some components of the report," Niemira said. "But broadly, even excluding the volatile cars component, the gain was 0.7 percent, which is still quite healthy."

Among the best-performing categories last month, sales of autos and auto parts rose 2.7 percent from a revised 2.1 decline in April . Sales at gas stations rose a robust 4.0 percent after rising a revised 0.3 percent in the prior month.

Sales at general merchandise stores rose 1.3 percent, compared with a revised 0.7 percent decline, while clothing sales rose 0.9 percent after a revised 2.3 percent decline the prior month.

However, sales of building materials and garden equipment fell 1.4 percent after a revised 0.4 percent dip the prior month. Consumers also pulled back from eating out last month. Sales at restaurants slipped 0.3 percent compared to a 0.2. percent decline the prior month.

"We haven't yet seen the negative effect of gas prices on consumer spending. It's certainly not here in these numbers. That doesn't mean it's not there. Certainly the weekly retail sales numbers have been sluggish," said Conference Board economist Delos Smith.

"Gas prices have come down a couple of pennies but are still above $2 a gallon," Smith said. "You can't have these higher levels at the pump and not see an economic impact down the road. "I think it's a matter of time before the numbers start to reflect some slowdown."  Top of page




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Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.