Weekly retail sales data from the Commerce Department showed a 0.4 percent decline in the most recent tracking period — the first weekly decline in six weeks. The drop concentrated in discretionary categories: apparel (-1.2 percent), electronics (-0.8 percent), and restaurants (-0.6 percent). Gasoline station sales rose 4.1 percent, reflecting price increases rather than volume growth. [1]

When gas takes more of the household budget, everything else gets less.

-- THEO KAPLAN, San Francisco