U.S. stock futures traded higher early, but turned negative after the latest report on retail sales. The Commerce Department reported that retail sales fell 1.2% from the prior month, while many analysts were calling for a slight gain. The monthly result is disappointing and will garner plenty of attention with the media and markets, but the trend in sales should not be overlooked. Year-over-year, sales are still up nearly 7%. The bottom line still is that consumer spending has been healthy on average over the last several months. Some offset should not be a surprise after such a strong burst of activity.
At around 10:00 am ET, the University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index is expected to have risen slightly to 74.0. At the same time, the Commerce Department is expected to show inventories rose 0.5% in April.
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