A Walmart store in North Brunswick, New Jersey.
Eduardo Munoz | Reuters
Economists expect retail sales were a half percentage point higher in October, after a strong surge in September.
Business-to-business spending data, provided by software firm Cortera, was predictive of the September gain of 1.9%, according to Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics, but the October data shows a tempering in consumer spending. Economists had expected a gain of just 0.7% in September.
According to Dow Jones, economists expect a 0.5% increase in October retail sales, and 0.7% when excluding automobiles. Retail sales are reported at 8:30 a.m. ET Tuesday.
