US: Retail sales rose 0.4% in August vs. 0.2% expected

The data published by the US Census Bureau today revealed that retail and food services sail in August rose 0.4% on a monthly basis to $526.1 billion and beat the market expectation for an increase of 0.2%. On a yearly basis, retail sales grew by 4.1%.

"Total sales for the June 2019 through August 2019 period were up 3.7% from the same period a year ago. The June 2019 to July 2019 percent change was revised from up 0.7% to up 0.8%," the publication further revealed.

The initial market reaction helped the USD recover a small portion of its recent losses and the US Dollar Index was last down 0.22% on the day at 98.15.