US DATA: ICSC sales for Aug 13 wk: “Retailers faced their third
consecutive week of weekly sales declines as consumers pulled back once
again on their spending as concerns of slowing economic activity takes
another firm hold. Given this, for the week ending August 13, weekly
retail sales declined by 1.5 percent, according to the ICSC-Goldman
Sachs Weekly Chain Store Sales Index. On a year-over-year basis retail
sales slowed to 3.5 percent.”