US: Retail Sales rise 0.3% in May vs. -0.1% expected

US Retail Sales rise by 0.3% in May; ex auto up 0.4%.
Report surpasses expectations, offset by Jobless Claims data.
US Dollar drops modestly after data, DXY slides under 103.00.

Matías Salord FXStreet

The data published by the US Census Bureau revealed on Thursday that Retail Sales in the United States rose 0.3% in May to $686.1 billion. This reading followed the 0.4% increase recorded in April. The market consensus was for a 0.1% decline. In the same period, Retail Sales ex-Autos rose 0.1% above the 0% expected.

Key takeaways:

"Advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for May 2023, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, were $686.6 billion, up 0.3 percent (±0.5 percent)* from the previous month, and up 1.6 percent (±0.7 percent) above May 2022."

"Total sales for the March 2023 through May 2023 period were up 1.7 percent (±0.4 percent) from the same period a year ago. The March 2023 to April 2023 percent change was unrevised at 0.4 percent (±0.2 percent)."

"Retail trade sales were up 0.3 percent (±0.5 percent)* from April 2023, and up 0.7 percent (±0.5 percent) above last year. Nonstore retailers were up 6.5 percent (±1.4 percent) from last year, while food services and drinking places were up 8.0 percent (±2.3 percent) from May 2022."

Market reaction:

The US Dollar pulled back after the release of US economic reports that also included Jobless Claims, NY Empire, and the Philly Fed. The DXY printed fresh daily lows under 102.90.

Author

Matías Salord

FXStreet

Matías started in financial markets in 2008, after graduating in Economics. He was trained in chart analysis and then became an educator. He also studied Journalism. He started writing analyses for specialized websites before joining FXStreet.

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