U.S. retail sales cool by 0.6% in February
(Editor: Leona)
Rough winter weather apparently took a toll on U.S. retail and food service sales, which fell 0.6% in February from the month before.
But sales were still up 1.7% over February 2014, according to a U.S. Department of Commerce report.
Sales at furniture and home furnishings stores decreased 0.1% from January to $8.68 billion in February, but were up 5.8% from a revised $8.21 billion in February 2014.
Some other big-ticket items declined more from January to February, including a 2.5% decrease for motor vehicles and parts dealers and a 2.3% decrease for building materials and garden supply dealers.
Gas stations sales rebounded from the previous month with a 1.5% gain in February over January, but were down 23% from February a year ago.
Among the sectors with sales increases from January to February were sporting goods, hobby, books and music stores, up 2.3%, and non-store retailers — primarily e-commerce and catalog operations — up 2.2%.
Department stores posted a 1.4% decline from January and a 2.4% decline from February 2014.
According to a Reuters report, the third consecutive monthly overall retail sales decline was worse than the 0.3% increase expected from economists that the news organization had polled.
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