Economists from Stifel, Nicolaus & Co. and Comerica Bank each shared commentaries late last week that shed light on two general economic trends that can have an impact on auto financing — retail sales and employment.

Stifel chief economist Lindsey Piegza highlighted that fueled in part by a 3.2-percent gain in vehicle sales, overall April retail sales exceeded expectations by moving 1.3 percent higher, representing the largest monthly gain since last March.

Piegza also mentioned gasoline station sales rose 2.2 percent in April following a 3.1-percent rise in March. She computed that excluding gasoline, retail sales rose 1.2 percent in April, and excluding autos and gasoline, retail sales increased 0.6 percent — a two-month high.

Should the developments mean a consumer comeback? Not so fast, according to Piegza.

“While retail sales buoyed nicely in April, following three consecutive months of minimal or negative growth, one month’s improvement centered on autos and gasoline purchases is not enough to be considered a comeback,” she said. “After all, in many cases, the gains in April sales simply helped to offset declines in March or earlier weakness.

“While April’s rise is a welcome improvement from disappointing spending activity early on in the year, a full-scale comeback, it is not,” she continued.

Going forward, Piegza pointed out that the consumer continues to face many of the same pressures that resulted in a significant pullback in spending January to March, including modest income growth and a still-heavy reliance by employers on temporary, part-time and low-cost labor.

“Low gasoline prices will help provide a floor to spending but will not indefinitely support a robust and healthy consumer,” she said. “Without underlying support from a meaningful and sustained rise in wages, the consumer is unlikely to be able to maintain this type of outsized monthly spending seen in this morning’s April report for very long.

“Still, after a 0.5-percent increase in topline activity in the first quarter, any improvement in consumer spending — even short-lived — will help support a better growth profile April to June,” Piegza went on to say.

Meanwhile, Comerica chief economist Robert Dye touched on employment metrics in his latest analysis.

Dye noted the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey for March showed an uptick in the job opening rate to 3.9 percent.

“This tied the mark for the strongest job opening rate since the series began in December 2000,” he said.

Tempering that upbeat development, Dye said, is that weekly initial claims numbers for unemployment insurance have drifted up. For the week ending May 7, initial claims for unemployment insurance increased by 20,000 to hit 294,000. The initial claims number of 248,000 reported on April 16 was a multi-decade low.

“The bounce off of the mid-April low was fed by an increase in manufacturing layoffs. This trend bears watching. We expect that initial claims will level out in the coming weeks,” Dye said.