U.S. retail sales were lower than expected in September but recovered from the prior month's 0.2 percent slide.

The Commerce Department said on Friday retail sales rose 1.6 percent, less than the 1.7 percent economists polled by Reuters expected. It was the biggest increase in 2 1/2 years.

The bounce back from August's poor numbers was anticipated by Scott Anderson, chief economist at Bank of the West.

"There was weakness in retail sales in the last two months, so we think there's going to be a bounce back," Anderson said Thursday before the report.