Retail sales posted a moderate increase in November, helped by a big rebound in auto sales and continued strong demand at building supply centers as the victims of the Gulf Coast hurricanes repair their homes.
The Commerce Department reported Tuesday that retail sales were up 0.3 percent in November, slightly below the 0.4 percent gain that analysts had been forecasting. The strength last month came from a 2.6 percent rebound in auto sales, which had fallen for three consecutive months after surging in July.
In a second report, the Commerce Department said that American businesses increased their inventories by 0.3 percent in October, following a gain of 0.5 percent in September. That gain was slightly below the 0.5 percent rise in inventories that economists had expected.
