US: Retail sales rise 0.1% in August vs 0.4% expected

"Advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for August 2018 were $509.0 billion, an increase of 0.1 percent from the previous month, and 6.6 percent (±0.5 percent) above August 2017," the U.S. Census Bureau reported on Friday.

Key takeaways from the press release

• Total sales for the June 2018 through August 2018 period were up 6.5 percent from the same period a year ago. 
• The June 2018 to July 2018 percent change was revised from up 0.5 percent to up 0.7 percent.