Forex News: US Retail Sales due out at 8:30 PM

At 8:30 AM on Monday the US Retail Sales data for March will be released.  Last month retail sales fell 0.6%.  Ex Auto the figure came in at -0.2%.  The last three months of retail sales have had a decline of 0.7% a gain of 0.4% and a decline of 0.6.  Clearly, the US consumer is slowing their spending. 

This month the expectation is for another slow month with no change in sales.  Ex Autos, the gain is expected to show a modest 0.2% increase.  With this release it would complete the 1^st quarter’s retail sales for GDP.  Since the consumer accounts for 2/3rds of US GDP, the expectation for a recession are great.