U.S. retail sales unexpectedly fall in May

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WASHINGTON, June 11 | Fri Jun 11, 2010 8:34am EDT

WASHINGTON, June 11 (Reuters) - Sales at U.S. retailers unexpectedly fell in May for the first time since September, pulled down by a record slump in purchases of building materials, according to a government report on Friday that added to fears the economic recovery was losing some steam.

The Commerce Department said total retail sales dropped 1.2 percent, the largest decline since September, after rising by an upwardly revised 0.6 percent in April. Sales in April were previously reported to have increased 0.4 percent.

Retail sales had risen for seven straight months.

Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast retail sales rising 0.2 percent last month.

Compared to May last year, sales were 6.9 percent higher. (Reporting by Lucia Mutikani, Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

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Comments (1)
timOregon wrote:
I am not one of the unemployed however see the need for Unemployment extensions…
… Congress needs to be held accountable for the their failure to create a jobs bill and a jobs market.

extending Unemployment is not the answer however it what is needed. the Answer is to create jobs, which will take Congress to place hire taxes on any company that out sources jobs over seas, higher taxes on any funds leaving the US and higher tariffs on imports.

Until then we have to pay out unemployment for the failure of our leaders.

Support unemployment here, it is one of Change.org highest all time petitions.

http://www.change.org/petitions/view/the_99ers_need_a_tier_v_added_to_unemployment_benefits

Jun 11, 2010 1:01pm EDT  --  Report as abuse
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