By Freddie Mooche

(AXcess News) Washington - Consumers where cautious in spending in August, according to the latest MasterCard SpendingPulse retail report, which showed spending levels where only slighty above year-ago levels as Americans held onto their cash over job concerns and how the economy was shaping up.

Data showed that at least apparel sales where back in positive territory in August, growing 2.6% above year-ago levels.  That growth came on top of a 1.1% decline in year-over-year apparel sales in July.  For the year, apparel sales have been up five out of the last eight months, MasterCard noted.

Consumer electronics and appliances showed increases on a year-over-year basis. While the consumer electronics category was up a respectable 2.3%, the appliances category recorded a 9.4% increase.

Growth in online sales in August rose 7.2%, though as robust as figures indicate, it was the smallest monthly gain in any given month this year.

In a separate report from the National Retail Federation (NRF) this morning on favorite ecommerce sites as ranked by consumers, Amazon remained the top site of choice followed by Wal-Mart, eBay, BestBuy, JCPenney, Target, Kohls, Google, Overstock and Sears, to round out the top ten.

Pam Goodfellow, Senior Analyst, BIGresearch, whose site conducted the shopper survey for NRF said, "Consumers who were solely focused on price a year ago are still looking for good deals but are also evaluating return policies, merchandise quality and free shipping as part of the buying equation."

MasterCard Advisors' SpendingPulse report for August gave no indication of consumer preferences when shopping in August, accept that Michael McNamara, Vice President, Research and Analysis for SpendingPulse noted that some of the growth in retail sales last month could be attributed to states providing a tax-free holiday period, though he also says that back-to-school sales which peak in August where negligible gains, implying on onward caution on the part of consumers.

"Categories such as apparel and electronics appear to have been helped by the back-to-school season, which tends to peak in August, although some spending in apparel can be pushed back into September as parents delay purchasing fall and winter clothing until cooler weather conditions set in," McNamara noted. "In addition, the hot and dry conditions we saw in August helped the overall restaurant sector while the continued volatile financial markets performance negatively impacted the Luxury sector and, to a lesser extent, the Jewelry sector. We also had tax-free weekends in three large states, Florida, Illinois and Massachusetts that did not occur last year. As a result, year-over-year comparisons in electronics, office supplies and apparel benefited."

At the opening bell in New York Wednesday, the Apparel Composite rose 2.18% to 728.9 in comparison to the S&P 500 index, which gained 1.56%.

The Electronics Stores Composite gained 1.92% at 711.5.