June Retail Sales Fall 0.9%

Retail sales fell 0.9% in June, the Commerce Department said Friday.

The decline followed a revised 1.5% increase in May that was bigger than the 1.4% originally reported, Bloomberg reported.

Economists had projected sales fall 0.1%, Bloomberg reported.

Sales excluding automobiles fell 0.4%, the most since September, Commerce said. Service-station sales fell 1.1% following a 4.1% jump in May, as gasoline prices fell from a record high in late May.

Almost all trucking operations depend on the health of retail sales because such sales involve nearly every type of cargo.