Retail sales dropped in October for the first time in three months as Superstorm Sandy took its toll on auto sales, the Commerce Department said Wednesday.
Retail and food-service sales were down 0.3 percent last month, compared with September. Analysts had expected Sandy, which paralyzed much of the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast, to cause a drop in spending by consumers.
But October’s decline was more than the 0.2 percent expected, suggesting that consumer spending slowed for other reasons than the storm.
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