U.S. retail sales in
November had the biggest gain in three months, showing that
consumers weren’t deterred by a worsening job market.
A surge in spending on furniture and on electronics at stores
such as Best Buy Co. pushed up retail sales by 0.4 percent to
$302.5 billion. Excluding autos, sales rose 0.5 percent, the
Commerce Department said. At the same time, the Labor Department
said first-time claims for unemployment benefits rose to an eight-
month high.
“We still have a jobless recovery,” said Robert Gay, an
economist at Commerzbank in New York. The retail report “is
consistent with our view that consumers are more cautious in the
following sense: They’re buying less expensive items and more
basic items like electronics, gadgets and TV sets for Christmas.”
Bloomberg News
