While many market watchers interpreted Thursday?s June retail sales figures as positive news, we believe the new monthly numbers from the Commerce Department are the latest evidence that the consumer continues to struggle and will likely continue to struggle into 2012.
On Thursday, the Commerce Department said June retail sales rose 0.1% from the prior month. While this figure was better than the -0.1% expected by economists, retail sales excluding autos came in, as expected, unchanged from May, the weakest level since July 2010, according to Bloomberg. Similarly, retail sales less autos and gas came in weaker-than-expected at a 0.2% increase from May.
Consumer spending is clearly suffering as consumers struggle with the ongoing challenges of too much debt, too few jobs and slow wage growth, challenges that are likely to continue for the foreseeable future. We don?t expect consumer spending to pick up materially over the next six to
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