U.S. retail sales rise 0.8 percent in March

(April 16, 2012) -- "If anything, today’s report suggested some mild upside risk to our forecast that consumer spending rose at a 2.0 percent annualized pace in the first quarter of 2012, which would roughly unchanged from the 2.1 percent growth rate in the fourth quarter of 2011 and in line with our forecast that overall GDP growth rose at a decent 2.3 percent rate in the first quarter of 2012," said Janzen.