Official figures show that US retail sales weakened slightly in April, despite some signs of resilience.
The Commerce Department said overall retail sales declined 0.2% after a 0.2% rise in March. That was slightly more than the 0.1% decrease that economists had forecast.
But excluding car sales, April's figures was up 0.5% after a 0.4% March pick-up - significantly better than expected.
The Federal Reserve has cut official interest rates 3.25 percentage points to 2% since last September to shield the economy from a credit crunch sparked by the housing crisis, hoping to keep consumers from cutting the spending that fuels two-thirds of US economic activity.
In April, sales of building materials gained 1.9%, more than reversing March's 1.5% fall. General store sales were up 0.5%, well ahead of March's 0.1% rise.
But car dealers suffered a 2.8% drop in sales during April, adding to the 0.5% decline posted in March.
