Retail sales rise by a less-than-expected 1.2% in July

Retail sales increased by 1.2% in July, less than expected. Yahoo Finance's Emily McCormick joins the On the Move panel to share the details.

Video Transcript

ADAM SHAPIRO: And let's start with Emily McCormick to talk about the retail sales numbers-- some good news there, maybe a few red flags. Give us the breakdown.

EMILY MCCORMICK: Well, Adam, taking a look at the Commerce Department's retail sales report from this morning, it showed retail sales did rise for a third straight month in July but lost some steam, especially compared to that record jump that we saw back in May. So headline retail sales rose 1.2% in July month over month. That missed consensus estimates for a 2.1% jump. However, retail sales are now back up on a year over year basis by 2.7% after a few months of decreases on this basis, especially after that record decline that we saw back in April.

Now, take a look by category-- we had electronics and appliance sales up nearly 23% in July for the biggest jump of any category. We saw gas stations and miscellaneous store retailers both rising by 6.2% month on month. Now, taking a look at clothing stores and food service retailers, those extended their June gains, but at a slower rate. Sales at those stores were up 5.7% and 5%, respectively.

Now, on the flip side, I want to take a look at sporting goods and hobby store sales. Those were down 5% in July for the biggest decrease of any category. This was followed by a 2.9% drop in sales at building material and supply dealers and a 1.2% drop in motor vehicle and parts dealers.

Now, when we exclude sunk of those more volatile categories, including auto and gas sales, retail sales did rise by a better than expected 1.5% in July. That was versus the 1% gain that had been expected. But still, this was a deceleration of the 7.7% gain of that metric that we saw back in June. So overall here, still seeing an extended rebound in retail sales but at a slightly slower pace than had been expected for that broadest metric of this unit, Adam.