US retail sales rose 0.6% month-over-month in February 2026, recovering from a 0.1% decline in January and beating market expectations of a 0.5% increase. This marked the strongest gain in seven months.
The largest advances were recorded at department stores (3%), health and personal care stores (2.3%), clothing retailers (2%), and sporting goods, hobby, musical instrument, and book stores (1.3%). Sales also picked up at motor vehicle and parts dealers (1.2%) and miscellaneous store retailers (1.1%).
Additional increases were seen at gasoline stations (0.9%), nonstore retailers (0.7%), electronics and appliance stores (0.5%), and building material and garden equipment retailers (0.4%).
In contrast, sales declined at food and beverage stores and furniture stores, both down 1%.
Meanwhile, core retail sales—excluding food services, auto dealers, building materials stores, and gasoline stations, and which feed into GDP calculations—rose 0.5%, outpacing forecasts of a 0.3% gain.
