March Retail Sales Surprise to the Downside, Down 0.3% in March

Futures haven’t budged on this news, likely because no one really cares if the economy is doing well. All that matters is the Fed and their speeches and what they had for breakfast this morning.

For the month of March, retail sales surprised to the downside, coming in at -0.3%. The market was expecting a gain of 0.1%.

The decrease was led by the biggest drop in demand for autos in a year, and cutbacks at clothing stores, internet merchants and restaurants. Sustained gains in consumer spending, the biggest part of the economy, are needed at a time exports are still depressed by cooling global markets and U.S. manufacturing is barely emerging from a slump.

“I don’t think the consumer will spend beyond his or her means,” Gregory Daco, head of U.S. macroeconomics at Oxford Economics Ltd. in New York, said before the report. “A sustained acceleration in wages is still the missing piece.”

Estimates in the Bloomberg survey for total retail sales ranged from declines of 0.8 percent to a gain of 0.4 percent. The February tally was previously reported as a 0.1 percent drop.

While nine of 13 major categories showed gains last month, those increases weren’t large enough to offset the drop in autos, clothing and restaurants.

Retail sales plunged 0.9% at clothing shoppes and 0.8% at eateries and pubs. These numbers truly suck and demonstrate that consumer is opting to save, rather than spend, in light of the decline in gasoline.