US Retail Sales for August was much stronger than expected, even with the lower revisions from July’s print. The headline print was +0.7% vs an expectation of -0.8%. However, the July number was revised lower from -1.1% to -1.8%, which nets to a 0.0% print for August (still better than expected). In addition, Retail Sales (ex-Autos) came in at 1.8% vs -0.1% expected. As with the headline number, July’s print was revised lower to -1.0% from -0.4%, which nets to a 1.2% for August (still much better than expected). This is good news for the US economy after the terrible print in July. What are economic indicators? ... (full story)