Retail sales bounced back once again from the April dip after March's miracle recovery. Up 1.2% (against 1.2% expectations) this is the highest MoM gain since March 2014. Ex-Autos rose more than expected (as did the control group) but the biggest drivers of the gains MoM was gas prices rising - so that's a positive? YoY the biggest drivers of retail sales gains were Autos (+8.2% thanks to shoddy credit) and Food Servce (+8.2%). Crucially this 'good' news brings forward the chances of a September (or even July) rate hike.
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Finally, after posting some of the worst numbers since the recession, the control group which feeds into the GDP calculation finally rebounded modestly, printing at 0.7% M/M, above the 0.5% expected, and up from 0.1% last month.
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