The Commerce Department posted miserable Retail Sales Numbers for April.
Retail sales declined 16.4% vs Econoday Expectations of an 11.2% decline. Excluding autos, the miss was much bigger.
Ex-auto sales declined 17.2% compared to the expected 8.6% decline.
Commerce Department Statement
Due to recent events surrounding COVID-19, many businesses are
operating on a limited capacity or have ceased operations completely.
Advance Retail Sales
Clothing was down a whopping 78.8%, electronics 60.6%, Gasoline 28.8%. From a year ago, clothing was down 89.3%.
Even grocery store sales were down, a surprise to me.
The one bright spot was nonstore retailers such as Amazon, up 8.4%.
No V-Shaped Recovery
Despite talk from hopers, even the fed understands there will not be a V-Shaped recovery.
Instead they are promoting a helicopter drop of money. For details, please see Panic Sets In: Fed Promotes More Free Money
Mish
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Mish – Do you know how those expected values are arrived at? Are they any better than guesses? Is there any interim tracking and calculation involved in arriving at the next month’s expected increase or decrease?
C-C, given that those stats are measured in dollars is there any point to wondering if they have any real value for analysis?
Retail won’t recover for years. We have all changed our behavior and we all need to buffer our savings so who isn’t cutting back on retail purchases? I’m surprised it wasn’t worse.
According to zerohedge Bank of America seems to disagree – the credit card is wielded vigorously again:
Sustainable?
A 5 day stretch – juiced by stimulus checks + forbearance – make a trend?
The real stimulus is the +$600/week unemployment checks, and they run until at least the end of the year. Low income people are making more than they have ever made in their lives. Why wouldn’t they continue to spend it? A better question is how long until the middle class is missed. It’s an upside down world, with low income people loaded with cash, and business owners bleeding cash.
As long as the helicopter operates the consumer consumes apparently.
“As long as the helicopter operates the consumer consumes apparently.”
Not if the helicopter is restructed to fly in a tight formation around Manhattan.
Probably a one time boost. Will need to see the next report.
JPMorganChase reports would strongly disagree.
Guns, lead, food storage, and seeds.
January and February with downward revisions … with February already negative (adjusted) month over month.
Total Retail Sales Adjusted
Last Report
January … $531.643 billion
February … $529.262 billion
March … $483.066 billion
This Report
January … $529.616 billion
February … $527.273 billion
March … $483.476 billion
April … $403.946 billion
Don’t worry, I’ll save you!
Yep, we have a visibly senile hair sniffer versus an orange carnival barker.
Yakov Smirnoff was right, what a country!
Is this really the best leadership this country has to offer? Or has the well become so poisoned that only fools and narcissists offer themselves up for the Presidency. Democracy (aka mob rule) has put greater and great power in the hands of increasingly incapable idiots.
“..only fools and narcissists offer themselves up …”
Only fools and narcissists are in a position to. Everyone else have been robbed to starvation, in order to prop them up. They are the only ones dumb enough to fall for the scams that central banks and progressive government can, even in theory, serve any positive function whatsoever, after all.
I would vote for Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho before I would vote for this corrupt, senile fraud.
Are you sure it wasn’t Elizondo Camacho Herbert Dew Dwayne?
Camacho was better than anybody we’ve had in a while. He was confronted with one major crisis and he rose to the occasion by putting the best guy on the problem, somebody he didn’t even know personally. He could have stayed in denial or listened to his cronies like most real leaders, but he recognized that would be folly.
Granted, he showed impatience after that, but at least he cared about his land of idiocracy enough to make an honest attempt!
Another Russian bot hard at work.
Grocery store sales are down, even though I would assume the volume is up. Many consumers are probably substituting lower processed items for more expensive processed ones, cheaper cuts of meat for more expensive, generic vs name brand, etc.
Im also curious as to how commerce department classifies stores such as Meijer, Target, and even Wal-Mart, that sell both groceries AND general soft goods. DO they split up the numbers between the departments, or classify them as one or the other…..?
For those big box retailers that double as grocery stores, they probably do split up the numbers but it would likely depend on what is subject to sales tax locally. In most states food would be exempt, usually with exceptions for things like alcohol, certain processed foods, or maybe dietary supplements.
People stockpiled in March, with groceries up 30%. A boost that big is obviously going to reduce future sales.