Just caught the Commerce Department's retail sales report from January and it's interesting how the numbers played out. Sales actually dipped 0.2 percent that month, which honestly beat expectations since analysts were calling for a 0.4 percent drop. So that's kind of a relief? Though when you dig into January's breakdown, motor vehicle sales took a hit, falling 0.9 percent, which definitely dragged the overall numbers down.

What caught my eye is that excluding autos, retail basically flatlined in January after staying flat in December too. The consensus was expecting a tiny 0.1 percent bump there, so that's a bit underwhelming. Some of the weakness showed up in department stores and gas stations, though miscellaneous and non-store retailers actually did pretty well during that period.

Michael Pearce from Oxford Economics made a solid point about January being affected by that brutal winter weather across the country. He also flagged something I've been watching - gasoline prices jumped because of the Iran situation, which could be a real headwind for consumer spending. But he noted that tax refunds were ramping up around that time too, so that might help offset things.

One thing that stood out was core retail sales, which exclude autos and gas, actually rose 0.3 percent in February. So maybe January was just a temporary dip. Anyway, worth keeping an eye on how this plays out in the coming months.