U.S. retail sales suffered a record drop in March as mandatory business closures to control the spread of the novel coronavirus outbreak depressed demand for a range of goods, setting up consumer spending for its worst decline in decades. The Commerce Department on Wednesday said retail sales plunged 8.7% in March, the biggest decline since the government started tracking the series in 1992, after falling by a revised 0.4% in February. According to a Reuters survey of economists, retail sales were forecast to have fallen 8.0% last month. The report came as millions of Americans are thrown out of work, and strengthen ... (full story)