Sales at U.S. furniture and home furnishings stores gained 4.3 percent in July versus the same month of last year, according to the monthly report on U.S. retail sales from the Census Bureau.

July sales in this channel were also up 0.2 percent over sales in June. Sales at general merchandise stores were down 1.1 percent year to year and 0.1 percent month to month. Sales at department stores (excluding leased departments) fell 4 percent from July of last year and 0.5 percent from June. Sales at nonstore retailers jumped 14.1 percent over July 2015 and rose 1.3 percent from June.

Overall, U.S. retail sales reached $457.7 billion on an adjusted basis in July, up 2.3 percent from July of last year and flat with June of this year. The overall numbers were weaker than expected, said Jack Kleinhenz, chief economist of the National Retail Federation. However, “recent job and income gains support the notion that consumers do have the ability to spend, and I suspect that July’s flat performance is transitory and does not signal a slowdown,” Kleinhenz said.

(Source: hfndigital.com  Author: David Gill)