US retail sales fall for third straight month US retail sales declined for a third straight month in June as demand for cars, electronic goods and building materials fell, signalling yet more uncertainty surrounding the country's economic recovery. Retail sales dipped 0.5 per cent month-on-month, according to Department of Commerce data, following a 0.2 per cent fall in May. "Weak spending growth and weak employment are reinforcing one another in a disconcerting negative feedback loop," said Jonathan Basile, director of economics at Credit Suisse. Core retail sales, which excludes the more volatile car and petrol sales segments, declined 0.2 per cent. This was the third consecutive monthly decline and the longest losing streak since the end of 2008, when the economy was hampered by the effects of a deep recession. A weakening job market is stripping households of the confidence and the incomes needed to boost spending, which accounts for about two-thirds of the US economy. Although June's numbers were worse than the 0.2 per cent rise that analysts had expected, sales were 3.8 per cent above June 2011 levels. Motor vehicle sales declined 0.6 per cent after a 0.8 per cent rise in May. Excluding autos, retail sales decreased 0.4 per cent after a 0.4 per cent fall in May as a result of a fall in petrol sales by 1.8 per cent following a 2 per cent dip the month before. Sales of building materials slipped 1.6 per cent while electronic goods sales fell 0.8 per cent. "While we would normally caution against reading too much into any single data release, June's retail sales may be the one that proves to be the tipping point that persuades the US Federal Reserve to launch a third round of quantitative easing, " said Paul Ashworth, chief US economist at Capital Economics. Analysts said companies are likely to reduce orders placed with manufacturers as they attempt to keep stockpiles in line with sales and gauge whether spending and the economy will keep slowing. A separate commerce department report showed inventories at American businesses rose 0.3 per cent in May, compared with a revised 0.2 per cent decline in April. Sales fell 0.1 per cent in May, however, while the inventory-to-sales ratio increased to 1.27 from 1.26 in April. Meanwhile, a survey from the New York Federal Reserve showed factory activity in the New York region expanded at a greater-than-expected level in July. The Empire State manufacturing index, which covers production in New York, northern New Jersey and southern Connecticut, rose to 7.4 from 2.3 in June. While the index came in above the 4.5 level that was forecast, it was well below May's very strong pace of 17.1. Readings above zero indicate expansion. The new orders component fell to minus 2.7 to indicate monthly contraction from a very soft level of growth in June at 2.2. Unfilled orders are also contracting, at a very steep minus 13.58. But the pace of shipments and employment rose as price pressures moderated in the region.