Retail sales for July rose 1.2% vs. 2.3% estimate

Consumers spent less than expected in July as a boom in retail sales the month before cooled while efforts to reopen the economy stalled.

Retail sales rose 1.2% for the month, against the expected increase of 2.3% from economists surveyed by Dow Jones.

The news wasn’t all a letdown, however: Excluding autos, the gain was 1.9%, ahead of the 1.2% estimate.

Considered a bellwether for an economy that gets two-thirds of its activity from consumers, retail sales saw an 8.4% surge in June that included huge gains in furniture and appliance sales. However, those gains largely reversed themselves as a resurgence in Covid-19 cases caused reopening activities to slow.

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