watch nowConsumer spending held up even better than expected in July as inflation pressures showed more signs of easing, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.
Advanced retail sales accelerated 1% on the month, according to numbers that are adjusted for seasonality but not inflation.
Excluding auto-related items, sales increased 0.4%, also better than the 0.1% forecast.
Miscellaneous retailers saw a plunge of 2.5% while gas stations saw receipts climb just 0.1% and clothing stores were down 0.1%.
There was one counterpoint to that in another data release Thursday in which the Labor Department said import prices increased 0.1% in July, slightly ahead of the forecast for no change.
Persons:
Dow Jones, Richard de Chazal, William Blair
Organizations:
Commerce Department, Stock, Labor Department