NEW YORK — Shoppers paused their spending in June from May, defying economic forecasts for a pullback and proving their resilience in the face of an uncertain economy Retail sales were unchanged in June from May, after being revised upward to a 0.3% increase in May, according to the Commerce Department. Last month, April sales were revised downward — a 0.
2% decline, from unchanged. Sales rose 0.6% in March and 0.
9% in February. That comes after sales fell 1.1% in January, dragged down in part by inclement weather.
Sales at gas stations and auto dealerships weighed down the figure. Excluding gas prices and auto sales, retail sales rose 0.8%.
Sales at gas stations were down 0.3%, while business at auto stores fell 0.2%, as dealerships were disrupted by a multiday outage after cyberattacks on a software supplier.
The snapshot offers only a partial look at consumer spending and doesn’t include many services, including travel and hotel lodges. But the lone services category — restaurants — registered an uptick of 0.3%.
Elsewhere, plenty of areas were strong. Online sales rose 1.9%, while clothing and accessories store sales rose 0.
6%. Department stores posted a 0.6% increase.
Stores selling building materials and garden supplies rose 1.4%. Control retail sales, which excludes food service and drinking places, auto dealers, gas stations, construction material and garden supply stores, and a few other volatile categories, and which goes into the calculation of nominal gros.
