August retail sales disappoint
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Retail sales edged up in August but they posted the biggest decline in almost a year when car sales were stripped out as consumer spending softened, a government report on Friday showed.
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Wal-Mart Stores Inc. WMT.N lowered  its August sales forecast on Monday as back-to-school demand  failed to meet its expectations and hurricanes in Florida  forced it to close 75 stores.
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US retail sales rose a weaker-than-expected 0.3 percent in August, data showed Friday, suggest American consumers are turning more cautious.
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Retail sales were generally lackluster in August. Some outfits blamed Hurricane Charlie. Others pointed the finger at gas prices or the late start to the back-to-school shopping season.
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By Emily Kaiser CHICAGO  - Wal-Mart Stores Inc.  lowered its August sales forecast on Monday because of disappointing back-to-school demand, casting doubt on the strength of U.S. consumer spending in a key shopping season.
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Sales of new single-family U.S.  homes fell 8.3 percent in August to a 795,000 annual sales  pace, its slowest rate in over seven years, while the inventory  of homes dropped, a Commerce Department report showed on  Thursday.
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US retailers on Thursday reported weaker-than-expected August sales, generating the smallest monthly gain in a year and a half as high gasoline prices cut into back-to-school spending.
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U.S. auto sales weakened in August in   an unexpected drop that industry analysts attributed to growing   economic pressures on consumer spending.
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Higher interest rates and a damp, cool summer take their toll on UK retail sales in August, says the CBI's latest trades survey.
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Sales of new single-family U.S. homes fell 8.3 percent in August to a 795,000 annual sales pace, its slowest rate in over seven years, while the inventory of homes dropped, a Commerce Department report showed on Thursday.
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Business & money: Official data reveals a worse-than-expected fall in retail sales last month
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August retail sales, always an  important measure of back-to-school consumer demand, have taken  on even more significance this year amid fears about rising  interest rates, higher energy prices, slowing home sales and  continued strife in the Middle East.
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U.S. retail sales dipped in August  and the U.S. gap with its international trade partners widened  to a record level in the second quarter of the year, government  reports released on Tuesday showed.
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Higher gasoline prices, concerns about a softening jobs market and bad weather combined to deal a blow to retailers' back-to-school sales hopes in August, marking a disappointing opening of the fiscal third quarter for most of them.
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Major retailers, led by discounters Wal-Mart and Target, turned in better-than-expected August sales on Thursday, as consumers went back-to-school shopping despite higher gasoline prices and the nation's housing meltdown.
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A string of government reports on  Thursday offered a mixed picture of the U.S. economy while  unexpectedly poor August sales at many major U.S. retailers  fanned fears about consumer spending.
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Inflation was under control in July and U.S. factories were busier than forecast, according to economic data released on Friday, but other reports showed U.S. consumer sentiment worsened in August and the outlook for economic growth weakened.