Dow Jones drops on retail sales data
Retail sales data has pushed the Dow Jones lower.
Retail sales data has pushed the Dow Jones lower.
The Dow Jones is down in today's (April 12th) trading in the US on the back of retail sales data for the country that did not meet expectations.
It was revealed by the US Commerce Department that consumers spent a total of $418 billion (£272 billion) during March.
This was shown to be a drop of 0.4 per cent on the previous month and is the second time in the last three months that the figure has fallen.
Paul Dales, economist at Capital Economics, stated he does not believe the slowdown in US retail sales is going to prove to be a lasting trend.
"The surprise fall in retail sales in March adds to other evidence that the US economy is experiencing another spring slowdown," he told BBC News.
Following the announcement from the US Commerce Department that retail sales were 0.4 per cent down last month, the Dow Jones dropped by 63 points and at 16:00 BST was recorded at 14,801.80, down 0.43 per cent on the start of the day.
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