US Retail Sector Remains Bullish
Thursday 15th August 2019 – 13:37 (BST)
Data from the US Census Bureau has shown a 0.7% growth within the US retail sector over the past month, outperforming the 0.3% market expectation. Elsewhere, figures published by the US Department of Labor indicated a slight increase in first-time claimants for state unemployment insurance, up around 19,000 over the past month.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the pond, the UK also posted strong retail figures – outperforming the market expectation of a 0.2% monthly contraction with 0.2% growth. Whilst the year-on-year figure of 3.3% was significantly better than the 2.6% anticipated. Analysts sited the recent poor weather driving consumers to the shops over the traditionally quieter Summer months combined with an online spending boom of nearly 7%.
All of the above has seen GBP/USD exchange rate rebound from the $1.20 lows seen over the past 7 days.