INSTANT VIEW: Retail sales fall less than expected

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Sales at U.S. retailers fell in September, hurt by a slump in motor vehicle purchases as government-sponsored incentives ended, but the decline was less than expected, a government report showed on Wednesday.

U.S. import prices rose 0.1 percent in September as the price of imported petroleum dipped, the Labor Department said on Wednesday, making overall import prices slightly undershoot expectations.

COMMENTS:

SCOTT BROWN, CHIEF ECONOMIST, RAYMOND JAMES & ASSOCIATES, ST PETERSBURG, FLORIDA:

"It's a reasonable story for the consumer and not a disaster. The stock market is poised to open higher and that had already put Treasury bonds under pressure before the numbers. The data pushed bond prices down a bit more.

"Certainly the numbers were better than expected.

"You did see a big drop in vehicle sales as cash for clunkers expired, which was in line with expectations."

STEVE GOLDMAN, MARKET STRATEGIST, WEEDEN & CO, GREENWICH, CONNECTICUT:

"This is better than expected, but for stock prices we're still quoted up about 1.5 percent. That's a lot already. We're already moving to new recovery highs so we're not seeing any further gains despite the fact that the data was better than expected.

"JPMorgan's results were great to see. They could have something to do with the fees being generated -- its benefiting from the refinancing that's going on in corporate America. This is an extremely good number.

"If these results continue, I think its possible that banks will start raising their dividends eventually, but people are going to react slower to these results because of what happened six months ago. Bank results are tied to corporate America, and the banks that have an underwriting department will do better than the ones that don't."

PIERRE ELLIS, SENIOR ECONOMIST, DECISION ECONOMICS, NEW YORK:

"Retail sales showed ongoing strength in the categories chain stores have been mentioning; people have been buying clothing. There's solidity, or new strength, in all discretionary spending categories and many of those were strong last month. We evidently have hit the bedrock level of consumer spending and can even see a little bit of normalcy going forward. Maybe that's because people perceive their balance sheets have improved a bit and that's offsetting the effect of other people suffering from the weak job market. The outlook is not greatly strengthened, but the downside is much reduced."

MARKET REACTION: STOCKS: U.S. stock index futures add to gains BONDS: U.S. Treasury debt prices add to losses DOLLAR: U.S. dollar recovers versus yen, pares losses versus euro