Thought Of The Week US October Retail Sales US retail sales and food services rose by 1.7% for the month of October. This marked the largest gain since March and topped economists estimates of a 1.4% increase. The increase was  primarily led by automobile sales which rose 1.8%. Notably online sales rose 4% and service station sales rose 3.9% due to higher gas prices. The core retail sales which excludes automobile spend, fuel, building materials and food services only rose 1.6% which suggests that consumer discretionary spending in the US had increased. This signified that US consumers were unperturbed by the high inflation and COVID backdrop which strongly hints at a strong holiday season this year. Further forecasting a great sales season was data from Walmart. Walmart US inventory rose 11.5% as the company stocked up early for the holiday season in order to prepare for “a strong holiday...