This report measures all the sales at retail level. Retail Sales make up a considerable portion of consumer spending. Comsumer spending is a considerable portion of a nation’s GDP. Strong numbers are usually good for a nation’s currency as it shows growth in this area. These numbers are reviewed by central banks and often taking into consideration when making rate decisions.
The retail sales numbers can move the market quite a lot on release. Let’s take a look at the US Retail sales in May 2006. The forecast figure was 0.7% and the actual was 0.5%. 0.2% lower than expected. The market saw this as Dollar negative. Let’s look at what happend with GBP/USD:
The Pound moved up against the Dollar by around 50 pips in just 5 minutes. Historically this report has produced many surprises and provided many opportunities for the news traders.
