U.S. apparel sales rebounded in July

The month's total retail sales rose by 6.4 percent from a year ago, according to the U.S. Commerce Department. Month on month, sales increased by 0.5 percent. Economists polled by Reuters had expected July retail sales to grow by 0.1 percent month on month. July's sales minus autos, car parts and gasoline rose by 4.8 percent relative to a year ago.

Sales at clothing stores rebounded by 1.3 percent in July, after declining by 1.6 percent in June. They jumped by 6.4 percent relative to July 2017. Health-and-beauty stores saw a 5 percent increase over their year-ago sales, while electronics-store sales climbed by 4.2 percent. Sales at general-merchandise stores went up by 3.2 percent compared with July of last year.

Online and mail-order retail sales increased by 0.8 percent over June, probably boosted by the Amazon.com Prime Day promotion. That followed a 0.7 percent rise in June over May.

Americans also spent more at restaurants and bars, which lifted sales by 1.3 percent month-on-month and 9.7 percent year-on-year on that side. Receipts at furniture stores, however, slid by 0.5 percent from June, while the month's sales at building-materials stores remained unchanged. Spending at stores selling hobby materials, musical instruments and books fell by 1.7 percent in July.