“Advance estimates of US retail and food services sales for February 2025, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, were $722.7 billion, up 0.2 percent (±0.5 percent)* from the previous month, and up 3.1 percent (±0.5 percent) from February 2024. Total sales for the December 2024 through February 2025 period were up 3.8 percent (±0.5 percent) from the same period a year ago. The December 2024 to January 2025 change was revised from down 0.9 percent (±0.5 percent) to down 1.2 percent (±0.3 percent).”
“Retail trade sales were up 0.5 percent (±0.5 percent)* from January 2025, and up 3.4 percent (±0.5 percent) from last year. Food and beverage stores were up 3.9 percent (±0.7 percent) from last year, while nonstore retailers were up 6.5 percent (±1.4 percent) from February 2024,” the Commerce Department’s monthly update says. Economists had predicted a 0.7 increase, making this a pretty bad miss. But this is just a “detox period” and everything will be fine, et cetera.