Retail sales bounced back but rose less than expected in March.

Sales rose 0.9% month-over-month. On a "core" basis, which excludes auto and gas sales, sales rose 0.5%.

Expectations were for sales to rise 1.1%, a sharp bounceback after month-on-month declines in January and February. Core retail sales were expected to rise 0.6%.

Headline sales rose 1.3% from the prior year, and in the first quarter sales were up 2.2% from the same quarter a year ago.

The big year-on-year increases included a 6.3% rise in sales by home-improvement retailers and a 7.7% sales increase at food and drinking places.

Also producing big changes from last year were auto dealers, which saw sales up 5.8% in March, and gasoline stations, which saw sales decline 22% from the same month last year.

In a note to clients after the report, Ian Shepherdson at Pantheon Macro said: "In one line: Winter blues banished; more strength to come in the spring ... Headline sales were boosted by a 2.7% jump in auto sales, a bit less than implied by the automakers' volume data but more than enough to undo the damage of the past three months."

But there was a still a bit of underlying softness, with Shepherdson noting: "The jump in core sales reverses all the 0.5% cumulative absolute decline in sales over the previous three months, but it still leaves the level of spending about 1-1/4% lower than would have been the case if sales had continued to rise at their prior trend pace through the winter."

Here's the table from the Census Bureau that shows the monthly and annual changes in sales.

More to come ...