The February 2010 Retail Sales report is out. Retail Sales increased 0.3% from January 2010.

Autos down -2.4%, Electronics & Appliances up 3.7%, Gas stations up 0.3%, grocery up 1.3% and general retail stores up 2.5%, all in comparison to last month.

Here are retail sales excluding autos:

So much for that Christmas blow out. Retail sales dropped 0.3% from November 2009, but in comparison to December 2008, were up 5.4%.

Advanced Retail Sales for October were released yesterday.

While just getting to it today, the headlines screamed retail sales are a blow out yesterday (not all but many).

Here are the numbers:

The U.S. Census Bureau announced today that advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for October, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, were $347.5 billion, an increase of 1.4 percent (±0.5%) from the previous month, but 1.7 percent (±0.5%) below October 2008.

Total sales for the August through October 2009 period were up 1.5 percent (±0.3%) from the same period a year ago. The August to September 2009 percent change was revised from -1.5 percent (±0.5%) to -2.3 percent (±0.3%).

Minus autos (vehicles and parts), the preliminary retail sales report gives an increase of 1.1% from July 2009. From the current press release:

The U.S. Census Bureau announced today that advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for August, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, were $351.4 billion, an increase of 2.7 percent (±0.5%) from the previous month, but 5.3 percent (±0.7%) below August 2008. Total sales for the June through August 2009 period were down 7.6 percent (±0.3%) from the same period a year ago. The June to July 2009 percent change was revised from -0.1 percent (±0.5%)* to -0.2 percent (±0.2%)*.