As of early 2024, retail sales in the United States are generally continuing an upward climb. This growth is all the more impressive against the backdrop of significant challenges including increasing costs and shrinking sales units. Alongside retail sales figures coming in as expected across the market, this has helped allay fears somewhat. This follows an unexpected hot print in the CPI and PPI indices.
On an inflation-adjusted basis, real retail sales grew just 0.2% from July to August. Retail sales excluding car sales were up 0.3%. That increase is relatively weak compared to the 0.8% increase in the prior month. This suggests that although sales dollar amounts are up, unique sales are growing at a slower rate.
Not all sectors are thriving. Significant nonresidential building construction market share Sales of building materials have been on a steady three-year downward spiral. This significant decline has been largely driven by the long tail effects of a US mortgage crisis that began in 2007. As the housing market cooled down, the negative ripple effects were felt throughout the economy. Their shift created unique challenges for banking institutions that further complicated the plight of businesses that sell construction-related goods.
In spite of these challenges, the retail environment has performed surprisingly well. Retail sales growth has been bouncing back nicely and consistently increasing since the beginning of this year. This trend is yet another sign that consumers are still spending, despite inflation increasing the squeeze on household budgets. Year-over-year growth at 3.9% as of July of last year, making it clear that we are in the retail recovery stage.
Retail sales provide a shot in the arm to optimistic markets. Yet millions of retail investors lose money when they engage in riskier non-linear trading strategies such as Contracts for Difference (CFDs) and Spread Betting, with studies finding that 77.37% of retail investor accounts lose money in these products.