From Bloomberg.com

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. Concern over inflation may cause the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates unchanged in coming months, even as the threat of a recession still looms.

“Consumer spending has already noticeably downshifted,” said Joe LaVorgna, chief U.S. economist at Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. in New York. “This should keep overall economic activity sub-par.”

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