(Kitco News) - The gold market is closed to unchanged levels as U.S. consumers spent less than expected in February.
Monday, U.S. retail sales fell 0.2% in February according to the latest data from the U.S. Commerce Department. Economists were expecting to see a 0.3% increase in retail sales.
Core sales, which strips out vehicle sales dropped 0.4% last month, up from January’s of 0.9% increase. Economists were expecting to see a 0.4% increase.
Meanwhile, the control group, which excludes autos, gas, building materials, and food services dropped 0.2% last month, beating the expected rise of 0.3%.
The gold market, which was under pressure ahead of the data is seeing some buying momentum in initial reaction. June gold futures last traded at $1,298.80 an ounce, unchanged on the day.
Avery Shenfeld, senior economist at CIBC World Markets said that the latest retail sales numbers should be taken with a grain of salt as February’s weak data was counterbalanced with strong revisions to January’s data.
“Today's retail sales data for the US reminded us to treat these "advance" figures with due skepticism,” he said. “Total retail sales dropped 0.2%, but that now comes after a 0.7% January gain that had previously been reported as only a 0.2% gain. We're going to hear a lot about the "polar vortex" (previously known as "winter") in explaining away these data and weak Q1 earnings coming up for US companies, as well as the government shutdown, and we do still expect the economy to do better in the spring.”
https://www.kitco.com/news/2019-04-01/Gold-Prices-Jump-Modestly-Following-Weaker-Than-Expected-Feb-U-S-Retail-Sales.html
2019-04-01 12:34:00Z
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