WASHINGTON — U.S. retail sales gave their weakest showing in more than a year and consumer sentiment plunged, data showed Friday, as households battered by fallout from President Donald Trump's Iran war curbed spending and raised their expectations of inflation. Total U.S. retail sales were down 0.6 percent in July from the previous month, at $763.6 billion, said the Department of Commerce. A new U.S. consumer sentiment survey by the University of Michigan showed confidence dropped by around eight percent in August, ending two months of gains. The United States and Israel launched the war against Iran on February 28, plunging the Middle East into conflict and sending energy prices skyrocketing as Tehran retaliated by attacking Washington's Gulf allies and snarling a fifth of the world's oil and gas supplies. The war has sent inflation -- already elevated from the U.S. Federal Reserve's long-term two-percent target -- surging, and has hit American households battered by years of high prices hard. Expectations for inflation in the year ahead ticked up from 4.2 percent in July to 4.3 perce