US Retail Sales decrease in April. | CountingPips Forex & Currency Trading Blog

May 13, 2008 - Forex Economic News

US Retail Sales decrease in April.

U.S. Retail Sales decreased in April according to a report by the U.S. Commerce Department released today. Advance estimates of April retail sales declined 0.2 percent to $378.1 billion from March but registered a gain of 2.0 percent over the April 2007 sales level. April's sales totals followed 0.2 percent increase in March and equaled market forecasts which were predicting a 0.2 percent fall. April retail sales were weighted down by a 2.8 percent decrease in automobile sales as retail sales excluding automobiles increased by 0.5 percent in April after a revised increase of 0.4 percent in March. Retail sales were up by 2.2 percent in the February through April time frame compared to the same time last year. Retail trade sales fell 0.3 percent for April but are up almost 2.0 percent from last year. Gas station sales have increased by 16.3 percent for the year while food and beverage store sales have increased by 5.7 percent over last year.

The U.S. dollar has been gaining ground against the Japanese yen today in the U.S. forex trading session as the USD/JPY pair has increased above the 104.00 mark to 104.64. The dollar has also gained ground against the Swiss franc, British pound and Australian dollar while losing ground against the Canadian dollar.

Tags: us retail sales, forex trading, currencies, usd, yen

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