October Retail Sales Fall 0.2%

.S. retail sales fell 0.2% in October, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday.

ales excluding automobiles fell 0.4%, Commerce said.

The decrease follows a revised 0.8% gain in September that was larger than initially reported. Economists had forecast of a 0.4% decline, Bloomberg said.

Sales excluding automobiles, gasoline and building materials, a metric used to calculate gross domestic product figures for consumer spending, increased 0.4% in October fol-lowing a 0.6% gain in September, Bloomberg said.

Almost all trucking operations depend on the health of retail sales because such sales involve nearly every type of cargo.

Retail sales account for almost half of all consumer spending, which accounts for about two-thirds of the economy.