Retailers saw a slight 0.2-percent increase in sales last month, in line with analysts’ expectations, but year over year, sales jumped 5.4 percent, indicating growing strength in consumer spending.
However, the U.S. Census Bureau, in its advance report on retail sales and food services, said that, excluding sales of automobiles and automobile parts, retail sales rose an even more robust 0.5 percent, which slightly exceeded expectations of analysts polled by Yahoo Finance. The year-over-year gain without automobiles and parts is 4 percent.
Sales of motor vehicles and parts fell 1 percent from June to July. The only other retail sector to perform worse last month was furniture and home furnishings, whose sales fell 1.4 percent.
But sales of motor vehicles and parts are still up 12 to 13 percent over July 2012.
