US retail sales jump 0.8 pct. in sign of consumer health
WASHINGTON — American consumers ramped up their spending last month in a sign of robust health heading into the crucial holiday shopping season.
Retail sales rose 0.8 percent in October, after an upwardly-revised 1 percent gain in September, the Commerce Department said Tuesday. The two-month increase was the largest since the spring of 2014.
The numbers suggest that the economy may grow more quickly in the final three months of the year than many economists had expected.