US DATA: wk 28-July ICSC-Goldman Store Sales: “tumbled by 1.7%.
Customer traffic at stores slowed appreciably for the week across all
retail segments, according to the ICSC-GS consumer tracking survey.
Consumers seemingly took a pause after booking healthy sales in the
prior week. On a year-over-year basis, sales also moderated to
1.8% following the strongest year-over-year reading in the prior week
since June 16. According to Weather Trends, Inc. (WTI) the U.S. average
temperature was nearly identical with last year, but 3F above normal.
WTI observed that “overall, temperatures during the final [fiscal] week
of the retail July [calendar] trended similar to last year for the U.S.
as a whole with hot weather in the eastern two-thirds of the nation,
while the West Coast was below normal.” Meanwhile, gasoline prices
posted their fourth consecutive increase.”