Chart of the Day: Hooray! We’re Shopping Again!

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A couple of days ago the big headline was “Why Aren’t People Shopping?” Today it’s “U.S. Retail Sales in April Grew at Best Pace in More Than a Year.” What a difference a single new report makes.

Anyway, retail sales were up 1.3 percent from March and 2.8 percent over the past year. The biggest winner was building supplies. The housing bubble is back! The biggest loser was gasoline, but only because oil prices have been so low. The real biggest loser was electronics and appliance stores. I guess there just haven’t been many must-have gadgets released in the past year. Apparently the smart watch revolution continues not to happen.