US retail sales were reasonably strong at 0.5% m-o-m - Rabobank

Michael Every, Head of Financial Markets Research at Rabobank, suggests that the only crumb of comfort yesterday was that US retail sales were reasonably strong at 0.5% m-o-m.

Key Quotes

“Although the details were perhaps less positive than the headline, while business sales rose more than business inventories for once, albeit leaving the inventory/sales ratios at recession levels.

Indeed, the NFIB small business survey poured cold water once again in noting: “Politicians in Washington credit any insignificant growth in the economy to their policies, but realistically, it’s the increase in the population. At this point, we should expect the same slow growth for the rest of the year.”