The U.S. Department of Commerce reports a 0.9% contraction in retail sales for May, following a 0.1% dip in April, a deceleration attributed primarily to a precipitous decline in automobile sales, the latter having been artificially inflated in March by consumers preemptively circumventing the anticipated imposition of President Trump's proposed 25% tariff on imported vehicles and automotive components.

Despite flagging consumer confidence, the confluence of anchored inflation and a stubbornly low unemployment rate may serve to buttress a modicum of expenditure in the forthcoming months; ex-autos, gasoline, and restaurants, retail sales edged up 0.4% last month, intimating a persistent, albeit attenuated, appetite for discretionary purchases amongst consumers.

Despite a precipitous decline across numerous product categories, online retailers, purveyors of haute couture, and emporia of interior furnishings registered a surge in sales, while the overall contraction in retail sales is ascribed to anxieties surrounding escalating prices engendered by the Trump administration's protectionist tariff policies.