Retail sales rise a solid 0.5% in July from June helped by rebounding auto sales

Shoppers stepped up their spending in July, particularly at the nation’s auto dealerships

Shoppers stepped up their spending in July, particularly at the nation’s auto dealerships.

Retail sales rose 0.5% last month, a slowdown from a revised 0.9% in June, according to the Commerce Department’s report released Friday.

The increases followed two consecutive months of spending declines — a 0.1% pullback in April and a 0.9% slowdown in May.

Excluding auto sales, which have been volatile since President Donald Trump imposed tariffs on many foreign-made cares. retail sales rose 0.3%.

Auto sales rose 1.6%. They appear to have returned roughly to normalized spending after a surge in March and April as Americans attempted to get ahead of Trump’s 25% duty on imported cars and parts and then a slump after that, according to Samuel Tombs, chief U.S. Economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.

Business at clothing stores was up 0.7% while at electronics stores, sales were down 0.6%. Online retailers saw a 0.8% increase.