Consumer spending in the United States slowed last month as bad weather and high energy prices contributed to a drop of 1.1%, the largest contraction since February 2003.
The drop was worse than some economists had been predicting. Observers had been expecting a drop of 0.7%.
The U.S. Commerce Department said the slowdown was led by a 4.3% decrease in new automobile sales.
Excluding auto sales, all other sales were off by 0.2% in June, which met economists’ expectations.
The S&P/TSX composite index climbed 244.33 points to 32,000.10
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