When the Advance Monthly Sales For Retail And Food Services is released Wednesday, the outlook is for a 0.4% rise for overall retail sales and a 0.5% rise ex-auto, based on an MNI survey of analysts. Ahead of the release, we outline five themes for particular attention. --ANALYSTS' HISTORY OF MISSES There has been a slight tendency in the past 10 years for analysts to underestimate February retail sales. They have underestimated five times, overestimated twice, and were on target for three Februarys. When looking at the bigger picture in the last 20 years, analysts have overestimated the February report eight times ... (full story)