US retail sales rebounded in July but posted a smaller than expected gain while lines for jobless benefits shrank for a second straight week, government reports showed today.
The Commerce Department said retail sales rose 0.7 per cent in July to a seasonally adjusted $336.50 billion, less than economists had expected but a rebound from the revised 0.5 per cent decline in sales in June.
July purchases excluding autos were up only 0.2 per cent, their smallest gain since an outright decline in April. Ex-auto sales in June were revised to a 0.3 per cent gain from a 0.2 per cent drop.
Wall Street analysts had expected a stronger gain of 1.1 per cent in July and a 0.4 per cent increase outside of auto sales.
Stock and bond prices both fell after the data. In mid-morning trading, the Dow Jones industrial average was off by more than 80 points, or 0.8 per cent, partly because of record high oil prices. US Treasury debt prices slipped in early trading, spooked by the June revisions.
In a separate report, the Labor Department said claims for jobless benefits fell 4,000 to 333,000 last week. Wall Street had instead expected claims to rise to 338,000.