Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said the numbers were generally good news.
"Overall, our measure of core sales, which excludes gasoline, autos, food and building materials, rose 0.5 per cent, the best performance since May," he wrote in a client note.
"In short, a solid report, signalling that pre-election spending was quite robust, but we just don't know how consumers will react to the election result.