Halyard’s Weekly Wrap – 4/19/24
The red-hot economic data continued this week with the release of March Retail Sales. The report showed that retail sales rose 1.1% over the previous month, more than double what was expected. February retail sales were revised to a 0.6% monthly gain from the 0.3% that was first reported. The gains were broad based and have some economists thinking that the Q1 GDP forecast may be too low. The estimate last Friday was for 2.1% growth, but the consensus thinking as of this morning is 2.5%.