US Retail Sales Leave FOMC Narrative Unchanged

Mercifully -- because the Fed and traders scarcely needed any additional variables to incorporate while pondering the "correct" size of Wednesday's rate cut -- there were no big surprises in US retail sales data released on Tuesday. The headline nominal spending print did top consensus with a small gain against economists' expectations for a 0.2% pullback, but the ex-autos print was a tepid 0.1%, less than forecast. The prior month's headline gain was revised to reflect a 1.1% advance, an even