Economists were expecting a rise of 0.2%, both with and without auto sales, so the numbers are slightly lower than estimated. Building materials sales fell -1.8%, the largest decline among the categories counted by the US Census Bureau. Building materials sales were up 10.3% year-over-year in April and up 13.7% year-over-year in March. But the low three-month increase from November 2011 through January 2012 is the likely cause of the disappointing results from The Home Depot Inc. (NYSE: HD) this morning (our coverage here).
Non-store retail sales, including websites such as Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Ebay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY), rose 1.1% month-over-month and are up 11% year-over-year in April. The month-over-month gain was the largest among the Census Bureau’s categories.
The Census Bureau report is available here.
Paul Ausick
Top Gaining Stocks
Top Losing Stocks