Retail sales for September

  • Prior was -0.3% (revised to -0.1%)
  • Estimates ranged from +0.5% to +1.9%
  • Ex autos +0.3% vs +1.0% expected
  • Prior ex autos was -0.7% (revised to -0.4%)
  • Sales excluding gasoline -0.2%
  • Sales up in 5 of 12 subsectors
  • Year-over-year ecommerce sales were up 16.7% compared to total sales up 6.4%

Very poor numbers and USD/CAD has kicked higher to 1.2713. Autos and clothing were particularly weak but were offset by categories associated with housing; building materials and furniture were up 2.6% and 2.3%, respectively.

The first look at Q3 GDP is due on December 1 and the consensus is +1.8% (annualized). Expect to see some downgrades after this report.