Sales at U.S. retailers probably fell in April as the biggest housing slump in a quarter century, record gasoline prices and the loss of jobs took their toll, economists said before reports this week.
Purchases fell 0.2 percent, following a 0.2 percent gain the prior month, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey before the Commerce Department's May 13 report. Other reports may show housing starts fell to a 17-year low and rising food and fuel prices continued to push up the cost of living.

Plummeting property values are eroding household wealth just as Americans have to ante up a bigger share of their paychecks to fill gas tanks and feed their families. ... Read full article