Weak Retail Sales Take Rate Hikes Off The Table
Friday's weak retail sales report did more damage to the hawkish case. Sales fell 0.6% in July against expectations for a 0.1% gain. The control group, the piece that feeds directly into GDP, dropped 0.4%. That was its first decline this year. The print landed a week after payrolls fell 23,000 and two days after PPI came in flat. The bulls will point to Prime Day. Amazon moved the event to June this year, so nonstore sales fell 2.2% in July after a 7.7% June surge. Hot weather and the end of the World Cup pulled traffic too. Strip out the calendar quirk, and spending was probably close to…
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