July's surprisingly strong retail sales relieved some of the fears that the real cause of sluggish inflation this year is a weakness in the U.S. consumer.
The 0.6 percent jump in July retail sales was the best in seven months and is expected to bump economists' GDP targets for the third quarter. June headline retail sales were revised from a decline of 0.2 percent to an increase of 0.3 percent.
Third quarter GDP has been tracking around 2.8 percent, according to CNBC/Moody Analytic's rapid update. Barclays economists on Tuesday bumped up their tracking estimate for both second and third quarter GDP by 0.1 point following the data, and now expect 2.6 percent growth in each.
