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St. Louis Federal Reserve
Verified account @stlouisfed
2 minutes ago

Sales at U.S. retail stores and restaurants edged up 0.1%
in September to $509 billion;
a gain from a year earlier of 4.7%

this was the smallest in eight months https://bit.ly/2J4atXz

in depth article by Grant Thornton's Diane Swonk -

https://www.grantthornton.com/library/articles/advisory/2018/economic-analysis/real-time-analysis/retail-sales-101518

excerpt -

"One of the largest outliers to the downside last month was a 1.8% decline in spending at restaurants and bars. At least a portion of that weakness can be traced to Hurricane Florence, which caused widespread flooding and closed places of business across several states.

The risk is that the disruption and devastation created by Hurricane Michael, which just hit the Florida Panhandle, and the recent spurt in prices at the gas pump could delay that rebound. Families living paycheck-to-paycheck suffer the most when prices at the pump rise. I have already talked to several people who have had to cut back on their discretionary spending in October to cover escalating commuting costs."