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When consumer spending slips, it can send shockwaves through the economy.  Consumer spending, after all, makes up 70% of the economy.

The best measure of consumer spending data is Retail Sales, a monthly figure describing how much money Americans are spending, and where they're spending it.

Retail Sales unexpectedly fell in April.  Against expectations of a 0.4% increase, sales were down 0.2% in April.  Normally, that would usually push mortgage rates lower on the prospect of a slowing economy. 

This month?  Not so much.

Why? Because the downturn was clearly led by the performance (or lack thereof) in the Building and Garden Stores sector whose sales decreased by 2.3% month-over-month.  As a result, the industry served as a parachute on spending that is otherwise consistent and strong.

Nationally, housing is a dog with fleas and that's neither a secret nor a surprise.  Traders are so tuned in to weakness in housing -- and have been for so long -- that they aren't changing their mortgage market positions based on it.

It's no longer hip to trade on housing sector news.

So, as the Building and Garden sector lays an egg and drags down the overall Retail Sales figures, markets shrug.  Of course, fickle sentiments could change by next week when we get to see April's Housing Starts data.

Dan Green is an active loan officer. Email or call 513-443-2020. Dan is on Twitter at @mortgagereports.