US: Unconvinced retail sales data

The United States has just released retail sales data and the numbers were slightly higher but failed to convince the market, Joseph Trevisani from FXStreet reports. EUR/USD recovered after the publication of the data to 1.08595 while USD/JPY dropped to 109.727

Key quotes

“Retail sales rose 0.3% in January as forecast but December's gain was dropped to 0.2% from 0.3%, reported the Commerce Department on Friday. Sales outside of automobiles also climbed 0.3% as expected and the December figure lost 0.1% on adjustment to 0.6%.” 

“The GDP consumption analog 'control group' or core retail sales missed its 0.3% prediction for January coming flat and keeping to pattern, the December result was more than halved to 0.2% from 0.5%.” 

“The neutral reading in core sales combined with the weaker December purchases suggest that despite the continuing strength in the labor market and wages, household spending may have shed momentum in the fourth quarter.” 

“Auto sales rose 0.2% in January after plunging 1.7% in December. Purchases at building material stores climbed 2.1% in January following Decembers 1.3% gain and represented about half of the January increase in overall sales. Warm weather likely facilitated the unusual winter increase.”