Retail sales in March, as tracked by the U.S. Census Bureau, rose 0.7% from the previous month, and 3.8% from March a year ago.
The gains came as a pleasant surprise: A Dow Jones Newswire
survey, for example, had predicted gains of just 0.5%. At clothing and clothing accessories stores, sales increased a healthy 8%, and sales at general merchandise stores rose 5.8%.
--Sarah Mahoney