FX.co ★ US Retail Sales Stall

In October 2025, retail sales in the United States remained steady compared to September, following a downward adjustment from an initial 0.1% rise noted in the previous month. This performance fell short of expectations, which had anticipated retail sales to increase by 0.1%. Meanwhile, retail sales excluding sectors such as food services, auto dealerships, building materials stores, and gasoline stations—which are influential in GDP calculations—saw a significant increase of 0.8%, bouncing back from a 0.1% decrease in September and considerably surpassing the expected 0.1% rise. Specifically, auto dealership sales experienced a decline of 1.6%, with decreases also observed in gasoline stations (-0.8%), building material and garden equipment dealers (-0.9%), health and personal care stores (-0.6%), and food services and drinking places (-0.4%). Conversely, these drops were somewhat balanced by increases in sales at furniture and home furnishing stores (2.3%), stores selling sporting goods, hobbies, musical instruments, and books (1.9%), nonstore retailers (1.8%), miscellaneous store retailers (1.5%), and clothing outlets (0.9%), as well as at electronics stores (0.7%), general merchandise retailers (0.5%), and food and beverage stores (0.3%).