Prioritizing spend clearly evident here

Core retail sales in September, separating out gasoline, autos and building materials, rose .6% m/o/m, 5 tenths above expectations and August was revised up by one tenth to a .2% gain. Auto sales were up 1% m/o/m and 6.6% y/o/y as dealer lots have more options while building materials fell by .2% m/o/m and lower by 6.5% y/o/y with the pace of existing home sales near 30 yr lows. Spending on gasoline stations were up by .9% m/o/m after the 6.7% spike in August.

The internals otherwise were pretty mixed. Online retailing and restaurant/bars led the way with 1.1% and .9% m/o/m gains respectively. The ‘miscellaneous’ category which can include convenience stores, pet stores, jewlery etc… jumped 3% m/o/m but after falling by 3.6% in the month before and there is little color on that. Spending on food and beverage and also health/personal care were good, rising .4% and .8% each m/o/m.  Outside of this, furniture sales were flat m/o/m after a string of mostly down months. They are down 6.5% y/o/y. Electronic sales fell .8% m/o/m and by 2.5% y/o/y. Clothing sales were down by .8% m/o/m and are up less than 1% y/o/y. Department store sales were unchanged as was spend on sporting goods.