Another Mixed Reading for August Retail Sales, Watch Higher Gasoline Prices

A report from The International Council of Shopping Centers showed that the ICSC-Goldman Sachs (ICSC‐GS) chain store sales index continued to post mixed results, with sequential performance off by 1.5% for the week ending August 18 versus the prior week. It is worth noting, however, that the pace on a year-over-year basis was listed as a healthy 3.1%. ICSC sees total August sales up 1% to 1.5%.

The retail report measures nominal same-store or comparable-store sales, excluding restaurant and vehicle demand. It is a weekly index and it uses sales-weighted geometric average growth rates to preserve long-term consistency, and it is statistically benchmarked to a broad-based monthly retail industry sales aggregate.

The report showed that stronger back-to-school sales may have kept the report slightly better, although we track no estimates on this weekly reading as there are with other more broad economic numbers released by government agencies. Another factor is that higher gasoline prices at the pump may start taking out from discretionary spending.

JON OGG