The Financial Post reports in its Wednesday, Oct. 18, edition that U.S. retail sales exceeded all forecasts and industrial production strengthened last month, fresh evidence of a resilient American consumer whose spending is helping stabilize manufacturing. A Bloomberg dispatch to the Post reports that sales, unadjusted for inflation, increased 0.7 per cent after upwardly revised advances in the prior two months, according to the Commerce Department. So-called control group sales rose a better-than-expected 0.6 per cent. Robust consumer demand, in the aftermath of September data showing stubborn inflation and surging job growth, risks prompting the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates again. The reports prompted a slew of economists, from Goldman Sachs Group to JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley, to boost their tracking estimates for third quarter GDP. The 10-year Treasury yield jumped to the highest level since 2007, while the S&P 500 Index fell. Traders increased bets of a rate hike in the coming months and pushed bets on the first cut to later in 2024. The advance in sales illustrates a consumer who is still delivering for the economy, seemingly undaunted by high prices.