Official figures show that US retail sales edged up last month after falling in May.
The Commerce Department said retail sales rose by a modest 0.1% after a 0.1% decrease in May. May's drop was the first in 11 months. Excluding car sales, however, retail sales were flat in June.
A rebound from spring supply disruptions stemming from the Japan crises helped pushed auto sales up 0.8% and sales at general merchandise stores such as Wal-Mart rose 0.4 percent. But falling petrol prices pushed station sales down 1.3%.
Separate figures showed that fewer people sought unemployment benefits last week, in an encouraging sign the US job market may be slowly improving.
The Labor Department said weekly applications dropped 22,000 to a seasonally adjusted 405,000, the lowest level in almost three months.
Even with last week's decline, however, applications have now topped 400,000 for 14 weeks, evidence that the job market has weakened since earlier this year.
Applications had fallen in February to 375,000, a level that signals healthy job growth. They stayed below 400,000 for two months, then surged to an eight-month high of 478,000 in April and have declined slowly since then.
Other figures showed that US companies paid less for raw materials and factory goods in June, evidence that inflation pressures are weakening as petrol prices fall.
The Labor Department said the producer price index, which measures price changes before they reach the consumer, declined 0.4% in June, the steepest drop since February 2010. Wholesale energy prices fell 2.8%, the biggest decline in nearly two years. Food prices rose 0.6% in June.
Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, the so-called core index rose 0.3%, driven largely by a jump in prices for pick-up trucks.
