Highlights of the Feb 2016 US retail sales report:
- Prior control group was +0.6% (revised to +0.2%)
Advance retail sales -0.1% vs -0.2% expected
- Prior was +0.2% (revised to -0.4%)
Retail sales ex autos -0.1% vs -0.2% expected
- Prior was +0.1% (revised to -0.4%)
Retail sales ex autos and gas +0.3% vs +0.2% expected
- Prior was +0.4% (revised to -0.1%)
This is the last slice of top-tier economic data before tomorrow's FOMC decision.
It was last month's retail sales report that helped put support under risk assets. Originally the data was strong but today's revisions were large and negative. The 0.4 percentage point revision in the control group combined with the 0.2 pp miss adds up to a consumer that isn't nearly as strong as the Fed (and markets) believed.
The January revision included large downward adjustments to retail sales of electronics and appliances, building materials, personal-care items and department-store merchandise.
