U.S. retail sales decline in May

(June 13, 2012) -- "Our assumption that the volume of retail sales activity held up in the month, combined with the earlier reported solid 0.3 percent increase in real consumer expenditure in April, remains consistent with our expectation that real consumer spending grew at an annualized rate of 2.7 percent in the second quarter of 2012 to match the like-sized gain seen in the first three months of the year," said Jeffries.