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- Retail Sales +1.1 vs +0.5 Consensus
- Biggest increase since Sept 2012
- Excluding Gasoline +0.6 vs +0.2 in Jan
- Excluding Autos +1.0 vs +0.5 Consensus
- Market Reaction: Initial pop of selling, followed by some consolidation. Haven't re-broken lows yet, but getting close.

The U.S. Census Bureau announced today that advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for February, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, were $421. 4 billion, an increase of 1.1 percent (±0.5%) from the previous month and 4.6 percent (±0.7%) above February 2012. Total sales for the December 2012 through February 2013 period were up 4.5 percent (±0.5%) from the same period a year ago. The December 2012 to January 2013 percent change was revised from +0.1 percent (±0.5%)* to +0.2 percent (±0.3%)*.

Retail trade sales were up 1.3 percent (±0.5%) from January 2013 and 4.7 percent (±0.8%) above last year. Nonstore retailers we re up 15.7 percent (±2.3%) from February 2012 and auto and other motor vehicle dealers were up 8.8 percent (±2.3%) from last year.

More from MND:

• MBS Commentary: MBS RECAP: Attempting To Consolidate After Wednesday's Sell-Off
• Mortgage Rate Watch: Mortgage Rates Carried Higher Still By Yesterday's Momentum
• Pipeline Press: Can't Count on Low Rates Forever, Right? Why QE3 Could be Expensive; HUD disaster relief
• MND NewsWire: New Homes Hit Record Median Price in April, Sales Rise
• MBS Commentary: MBS MID-DAY: Treasuries Green, MBS Red

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