Bank of America nailed it

Bank of America nailed Tuesday's ugly retail-sales report.

According to the Census Bureau's advance estimates, sales fell 0.3% in June, or 0.1% excluding autos. The consensus expectation had been for a 0.2% gain on the headline, or 0.5% excluding autos.

But as we noted on Monday, Bank of America Merrill Lynch's Michelle Meyer and her team went against consensus, forecasting a 0.1% drop in sales excluding autos.

They were spot on.

BAML wrote that the retail sales "trend continues to suffer from the decline in gasoline spending at the start of the year."

But then again, this is what happens when you own a pile of proprietary credit- and debit-card data on millions of Americans.

Either way, credit where credit is due.

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