U.S. retail sales miss Wall Street estimates but still rebound in April

The Yahoo Finance Live team breaks down U.S. retail sales, percentage declines in certain sectors of retail, and consumer buying trends.

Video transcript

- Let's also talk about retail sales more broadly. They came in lower than analysts' estimates, but still a rebound. It rose 0.4% for the month of April, snapping a streak of monthly declines. When excluding autos and gas, spending picked up more than Wall Street's expectations, up 6/10 of 1%. Economists had been looking for a gain of 2/10 of 1%.

So basically what that tells us is that, Brad, a big weight in the month was coming, indeed, from autos, from gasoline. Gas station sales down 14.6%. So that was an area of weakness. Electronics and appliances down 7.3%, furniture and home furnishings down 6.4%. So a lot of areas of weakness.

But what stuck out to me as well were some of the interesting areas-- oh, excuse me, I'm quoting numbers year-over-year by mistake. That's what I get for looking at the wrong column on the chart.

- We've got some of the month-on-month--

- Those are the right numbers. Wow.

- --for retail, yeah. And looking at some of those key segments, it's really interesting, considering the earnings reports that have already come out and those that are still coming over the course of this retail portion of the earnings season. And I think back to the electronics category and, really, what had been mentioned already over the course of Apple, Amazon, all of these different companies that are waiting for the consumer to get back into a purchasing, a cyclical purchasing kind of tenor. And, as of right now, that's continuing to hit those electronics and appliance stores. We're seeing that year-over-year and in the month-over-month here still.

But then additionally, some of the other characteristics on the other side, where consumers are perhaps leaning into the little luxuries, whether it's that cup of coffee or just even the beauty category. Beauty continues to outperform here. And that is what is typical of a time where consumers are pulling back on some of those discretionary dollars. Beauty tends to outperform, and even things like that $7 Starbucks cup of coffee you might be getting as well.

- Yes. We continue to see food service and drinking places up 6/10 of 1%. So, obviously, I was looking at the wrong column, was looking at year-over-year. But directionally similar sentiment here.

Gasoline stores, autos down, electronics down, furniture and home furnishings down, up food and drinking places, as I mentioned. Nonstore retail stuck out to me as well because that is code for Amazon and the pure-play online retailers, which is interesting, given what we heard from Amazon about the first quarter. So still seeing some spending there. The biggest percentage drop, it looks like, month-over-month was in sporting goods, hobby, musical instrument, and bookstores.

- A few companies that this is not good for-- sporting equipment, especially if it's in the store category, Dick's Sporting Goods, a company like Peloton, even, that has--

- Maybe Topgolf. We just heard-- had a bad quarter. Sorry.

- Oh. Don't hit my Topgolf like that.

- Sorry.

- Well, yes, it's true, though. And then on the other side of that, you think about where in those declines-- the other one that you mentioned a moment ago that was escaping me for a hot second here, but even across the clothing and clothing accessories, that is something to continue to look at, even as we get into the Foot Lockers of the world later on this week, actually, and then even as we begin to hear about some of the other manufacturers of those goods, the footwear and apparel, even though one company that we're going to talk about later on, they actually had a standout quarter. And that was on. We'll talk about that a little closer to the bell.

But all of these things considered, I think the way that consumers tend to purchase, especially as they're looking across the dollars, going out of the household, it shifts back to a lot more comparison shopping in an environment like this. Given that they've heard the word "recession" now for the better part of a year, it's likely that more consumers on that e-commerce or digital spending side that you were mentioning a moment ago, they're looking to see, OK, where can they get the best deal? And that leads them back into a lot of the digital landscape and the digital shopping trends that we typ--

- Yeah. Even year-over-year, grocery store sales are up but month-over-month down 4/10 of 1%.

- Oh wow.