Just a quick heads up before the data
The January retail numbers can be an absolute lottery. Retail sales are volatile at the best of times but January is the worst. We get a good gauge of spending the 3 months into Jan, after that there's so many factors that can fall into the numbers, post-Christmas drop off in spending, cold weather, warm weather, sales etc etc.
Perhaps the only constant in the data will be the fuel numbers as pump prices have done nothing but head north.
Anyway, just a quick note not to get to wrapped up in the numbers today as a gauge for the economy overall, unless there's something good or bad in the underlying components.
