Retail sales offer hope in January

Retail sales forged ahead at a solid pace in January, despite concerns that a faltering stock market might take the rest of the economy down with it.

The Commerce Department reported a retail sales increase of a seasonally adjusted 0.2% last month, and December's rate was also revised up to a 0.2% increase from from an initial estimated 0.1% drop.

Total seasonally adjusted sales came in at $449.9 billion, which is also 3.4% above January 2015.

Building material and garden equipment & supplies dealers sustained an above-average growth rate, with adjusted January sales of $28.7 billion up 0.6% from $28.6 billion in December. That's a 5.0% improvement over January 2015.

The only categories with stronger growth rates in January were nonstore retailers (1.6%), miscellaneous store retailers (1.2%), grocery stores (0.8%) and general merchandise stores (0.8%).

Gasoline stations (-3.1%), sporting goods, hobby, book & music stores (-2.1%), department stores (-0.8%), furniture stores (-0.5%), and food services & drinking places (-0.5%) were all down for the month.