Retail Sales
This morning’s sole relevant economic data was May's Retail Sales report at 8:30 AM ET. It revealed a 0.9% jump in sales while a secondary reading that excludes more costly and volatile auto transactions rose 0.8%. Both readings were well above expectations of up 0.5% and 0.6% respectively. These numbers mean consumers spent much more than anticipated last month. Because consumer spending makes up over two-thirds of the U.S. economy, this data is bad news for bonds and mortgage rates. Fortunately, traders seem to be more focused on this afternoon’s FOMC events than this report, at least for the time being.