While the figures were not as strong as the Wall Street had predicted and anticipated, the consumers continued with their spending and the sales went up a bit. Besides that, the fact that the festive season just ended also did its bit and reduced the demands.

As soon as the news came out, the stock market fell. The data was provided by the Commerce Department and they said that sales at the retailers and the restaurants just inched up by 0.3 per cent during the month.

It is totally opposite to the kind of encouraging figure, the sector had developed during the past month. On Tuesday, both the Dow Jones industrial average and the broader Standard & Poor's 500-stock index went down by 0.3 per cent.

Economists had expected the retail sales to jump this time during January since many of the Americans saw their pay cheques after getting a Social Security tax cut.

Analysts say that the snowstorms are the reason for the decline this time. As per them, it has impacted segments like the home-building materials which were expected to go up but saw a decline of 3 per cent.