Retail Sales Crumble, Suffer Worst Run Since Lehman
by Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge.com
03/12/2015
Earlier today we warned readers that based on actual credit card spending data, today’s retail sales data would continue the worst trend since Lehman, and sure enough that’s what happened: moments ago the Commerce department reported that in February, retail sales missed once again and missed big and across the board, the third big miss in a row, with the headline print coming at -0.6%, far below the 0.3% expected, and in line with the -0.8% drop last month. Putting the headline numbers in context: December -0.9%, January -0.8%, February -0.6%. Excluding the volatile autos and gas, sales dropped once again, sliding -0.2%, below the 0.3% expected – in fact below the lowest estimate – and worse even than last month’s downward revised -0.1% decline. And with that the worst run in retail sales since Lehman is now in the record books.
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