U.S. Retail Sales Rose Record 18% in May

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: The Wall Street Journal.

ECONOMY U.S. ECONOMY

U.S. Retail Sales Rose Record 18% in May

Sales rose following record declines during coronavirus lockdowns

By Harriet Torry and Sarah Nassauer
Updated June 16, 2020 8:36 am ET

Renewed shopping drove a record 17.7% increase in retail sales in May, though total spending remained below levels before coronavirus.

Shoppers opened their pocketbooks in May as states eased coronavirus-related restrictions on businesses and consumers.

The May retail sales report from the Commerce Department offers another sign that the worst...

TO READ THE FULL STORY
SUBSCRIBE SIGN IN

Read more: https://www.wsj.com/articles/shoppers-returned-in-may-likely-spurring-increased-retail-sales-11592299802

---

https://twitter.com/HarrietTorry

https://twitter.com/sarahnassauer
[e-mail]

-- -- -- -- --

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/coroanvirus-covid-may-2020-retail-sales-171911895.html

Retail sales jump 17.7% in May amid COVID-19 pandemic

Heidi Chung
Reporter
Yahoo Finance June 16, 2020

The May retail sales report peeled back the curtain on the health of the U.S. consumer amid one of the worst global pandemics in modern history. Consumer spending rebounded in May following April's record plunge. Online sales maintained their strength and spending in the beaten down core components rebounded sharply during the month.

Here were the main numbers compared to Bloomberg estimates:

{snip}

-- -- -- -- --

Advance Monthly Retail Trade Report

https://www.census.gov/retail/index.html

[Iliyah]

1. If . . .

believable, I would tag that with aid package (unemployment) that will end in July.

But alas, I do not trust anything that comes from this administration.

[Sherman A1]

2. Agreed

[mahatmakanejeeves]

3. From the Commerce Department:

ADVANCE MONTHLY SALES FOR RETAIL AND FOOD SERVICES, MAY 2020

{snip}

Advance Estimates of U.S. Retail and Food Services

Advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for May 2020, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, were $485.5 billion, an increase of 17.7 percent (± 0.5 percent) from the previous month, but 6.1 percent (± 0.7 percent) below May 2019. Total sales for the March 2020 through May 2020 period were down 10.5 percent (± 0.5 percent) from the same period a year ago. The March 2020 to April 2020 percent change was revised from down 16.4 percent (± 0.5 percent) to down 14.7 percent (± 0.2 percent).

Retail trade sales were up 16.8 percent (± 0.5 percent) from April 2020, but 1.4 percent (± 0.7 percent) below last year. Nonstore retailers were up 30.8 percent (± 1.4 percent) from May 2019, while building material and garden equipment and supplies dealers were up 16.4 percent (± 1.9 percent) from last year.

{snip}

[George II]

4. No doubt trump will be spouting about this on Twitter. When no one has purchased anything....

....for three months, no surprise sales would be up when the stores open. By all rights it should have been up 50% or more!

[still_one]

5. It isn't a surprise. From nothing to something. Amazon and online sales up 31%. Building

materials, Home Depot and Lowe’s up 16%, Costco and grocery stores did well

Dept store and brick and mortar stores did terrible, along with apparel stores

Walmart, Costco, and Target are doing fine because they offer groceries, and were open for other things, while stores in the malls did terrible

The bulk of these sales came from Amazon and online sales

none of this is a surprise. A lot of stores came off from lock down

Also what isn’t getting counted is number of stores which didn’t reopen in this report, or went out f business

It is still unknown if people will be going out to eat at restaurants etc

Higher because this is the first month where people can go out

The question is will it continue

[Roland99]

6. If I slam on the brakes of my car to avoid an accident...

and then speed up afterward to get back to just the speed limit, one could say I'm accelerating quickly.

[still_one]

8. An excellent illustration. Also, it is the online sales that really boomed. Those not part of the

S&P 500, or those business that were closed or went under are not factored in to this report at all

It remains to see if this is an illusion or one shot wonder because we are coming from zero

Complacency might be a dangerous strategy right now

[bucolic_frolic]

7. 5 factors, all mostly non-recurring

Stim checks, stocking up on previously out of stocks, idle time around the house/home repairs, FOMO (fear of missing out), the 2 month itch.

This number is an outlier. I'd place the actual number at about 4-5%. And they still haven't explained overall sales compared to pre-corona are down.

[NurseJackie]

9. When I run out of food... I buy more.

When I'm stocking-up on food and supplies... I buy EXTRA. But, in the interim... I'm NOT buying food and supplies, for a longer period of time. (This is just a "restocking" blip.)

I do not believe that this is an indicator of some magical economic turn-around.

It reminds me of those spammy emails I used to receive back when I first got online. The email would say something like "Gas prices are too high: BOYCOTT EXXON on TUESDAY!" along with other encouragement letting us know that the Tuesday Boycott would really hurt their profits.

No... because people who "boycotted" on Tuesday would simply fill-up again on Wednesday. It wasn't a boycott.

[dalton99a]

10. So now there is toilet paper to buy

and face masks

[RhodeIslandOne]

11. It's only logical you'd have a rocord rise after a record fall

But expect Kaaaaaaaayleigh Macknucklehead to be crowing about it with her vacant eyes today.

[EarlG]

12. Alternative headlines, based on the same set of numbers:

(See post 3)

“May retail and food services sales 6.1% lower than last year”

or

“March through May sales down 10.5% from the same period a year ago”

[Hugin]

14. Thanks EarlG!

You get it.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

20. Congratulations on hitting 17,000 posts. This one was no higher than number 16,999. NT

[Hugin]

13. They're talking percentages again...

An 18% increase over what? 1? So, instead of selling one they sold 1.018 units.

Beware the percentages! (Especially, from Wibur Ross, anything, or anyone who is beholding to the current administration.)

[JT45242]

15. What a misleading headline

Retail sales, like most economic indicators are measured by year to year growth. Not month to month growth. If sales dropped 50% in the previous month and then rose 18% they are still 41% below average.

What is the real number compared to a typical May?

Not surprising the WSJ trying to paint a rosy economic picture to get more Rethugs elected for more corporate handouts and taxcuts for the rich.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

16. The Census Bureau disagrees on how often reports are released.

ADVANCE MONTHLY SALES FOR RETAIL AND FOOD SERVICES, MAY 2020

The Wall Street Journal. is reporting what the survey says. I had to omit the remainder of the article, as it is behind a paywall. I assume many of the details missing in the OP in LBN are in the remainder of the article that subscribers can read.

As EarlG noted, you can write several headlines based on the Census Bureau's survey. Note that the survey will be revised two times.

I truncated the survey on the grounds that most people people here won't want to read the entire thing.

Thank you for writing.

[Miguelito Loveless]

17. Compared to what? Last month?

If so, hardly spectacular.

[Crowman2009]

19. We're still 50% below May of last year.

So I don't know how much cocaine those Wall Street pricks snorted in order to get excited about this news.

[iluvtennis]

18. [trump admin]Manipulated to spin good news for trump just like the 2.5 mil jobs from 2 weeks

ago, that proved to be fabricated.

[LudwigPastorius]

21. Someone tell Trump's Commerce Department that body bag sales don't count.

[Doug.Goodall]

22. Trump throws the country down a 100 foot deep well.

Then he proclaims how great things are since we have climbed 18 feet above the bottom.