US retail sales, a major driver of economic growth, rebounded in July as American consumers regained their appetite for spending.
A survey, released by the US Commerce Department, showed July retail sales rose 0.3%, a shade stronger than most analysts' forecasts that sales would rebound 0.2%.
Stripping out vehicle sales from the July report, retail sales increased 0.4%.
Sales excluding autos were also a notch better than anticipated.
Wall Street, which was rocked last week by volatile share trading tied to fears about the US mortgage market, follows the retail industry closely because retail sales account for some two-thirds of all economic activity.
June's retail sales numbers were revised to reflect a slightly better outlook. The US government said it had revised June retail sales to show a decline of 0.7% compared with an initial estimate that sales had slumped 0.9%.
Sales excluding autos for June were revised to show a gain of 0.2% compared with an initial projection that sales had fallen 0.4%.
Over the past 12 months, overall retail sales in July are up 3.2% and 4.4% excluding the auto sector.
