Retail sales
Monthly total sales at US retail and food service businesses, a timely gauge of consumer spending.
Retail sales measure the value of sales at stores, online retailers and food service businesses in a month, published by the Census Bureau. The headline is nominal, meaning it is not adjusted for price changes. The control group, which feeds into GDP estimates, excludes autos, gasoline, building materials and food services. Figures are revised.
On our site, the headline and the control group are shown with the consensus. Read the control group when judging the consumer's effect on growth.
Traders care because consumer spending is most of US GDP, and retail sales are an early read on it. A strong print can lift yields and cyclical stocks.
Worked example (illustrative numbers, not real data): headline sales rise 0.8 percent, but autos and gasoline drive most of the gain. The control group rises 0.2 percent, below a 0.4 percent consensus. Traders would likely read the core spending signal as soft.