US retail sales in October were strong - Westpac

Sean Callow, Research Analyst at Westpac, notes that the strong US Oct retail sales data boosted the US dollar in the last session.

Key Quotes

“US retail sales in October were strong, rising 0.8% (vs 0.6% expected). The core control group, the key measure that goes into GDP, jumped 0.8% in Oct, double consensus, while the prior month was also revised up +0.2ppts to +0.3%. 11 of 13 categories posted gains, pointing to a lot of breadth in sales in Oct too.”

“The NY Fed’s Empire State manufacturing survey also firmed, from -6.8 to +1.5, and was above consensus (-2.5) although employment and prices paid/received both fell in Nov.”