US retail sales fall 0.6% in weakest month in over a year

US retail sales fell 0.6 percent in July from the previous month to $763.6 billion, US Department of Commerce estimates released Friday showed, marking their weakest monthly performance in more than a year.

The decline included pullbacks at auto dealers and online stores. Sales at motor vehicle and parts dealers fell 1.8 percent from June, while online store sales fell 2.2 percent.

Sales at gasoline stations dropped 0.9 percent, and spending at grocery stores ticked down. Hobby spending was flat. Excluding auto dealers and gasoline stations, retail sales dipped 0.2 percent month on month.

Despite the monthly fall, total retail sales were 5.0 percent higher than in the same period a year earlier.

“American consumers are showing signs of fatigue. July retail sales were disappointing on all levels,” said Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union.

Long said consumers likely brought forward some spending to online sales events in June. She said that even with lower spending on gasoline in July, consumers were not eager to spend elsewhere.

Gasoline prices cooled in July, weighing on sales at the pump, even as costs remained higher than before the Middle East war started.

Oliver Allen, an economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, cautioned that a sharper slowdown could lie ahead. He cited the end of support to household cash flows from tax refunds, pressure from higher energy prices, weak underlying income growth and limited room for the personal saving rate to fall further.