Advance retail sales for April increased 0.4%, compared to the forecast that called for an increase of 0.2%, and March’s solid 1.6% gain was revised to a 2.1% advance. Sales ex-autos rose 0.4%, matching expectations.

Industrial production rose 0.8% in April, compared to the 0.7% increase that economists were expecting. Capacity utilization ticked higher from a downwardly revised 73.1% in March to 73.7% in April, as a slump in utilities was offset by gains in mining and manufacturing utilization.
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The University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment survey increased by a smaller amount than expected, rising from 72.2 in April to 73.3 in May, compared to the increase to 73.5 that economists had expected.

Business inventories rose 0.4% month over month in March, matching economists’ expectations, and February’s 0.5% increase was left unchanged. Sales advanced 2.3% , resulting in the inventory-to-sales ratio dropping from 1.27 to 1.24 months in March.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 163 points (1.5%) to close at 10,620, while the S&P 500 Index lost 22 points (1.9%) to 1,136, and the Nasdaq Composite was 48 points (2.0%) lower at 2,347. Crude oil fell $2.19 to $71.61 per barrel, while the Bloomberg gold spot price declined $2.05 to $1,230.65 per ounce. For the week, the DJIA gained 2.3%, the S&P 500 Index added 2.2%, and the Nasdaq Composite advanced 3.6%.

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