The most recent Executive Opinion Survey, a monthly index by the National Retail Federation, looked liked a solid precursor of the sluggish June results that were reported last week as the Retail Sector Performance Index (RSPI) posted its lowest reading since June 2003.

Retail executives apparently pointed to weakness in Father’s Day sales and unseasonably cool weather in parts of the country as key reasons for the 800 basis point drop in the RSPI reading to just 52.0 from the May’s 60.0 reading. The Index, or RSPI, measures retail executives’ evaluations of a number of core retail performance metrics and is based on a scale of 0.0% to 100.0, with 50.0 equaling normal.

Pricing was the only index that saw an increase for the month, rising 310 basis points to 62.5, a new high for the survey. The index shows continued confidence by retailers that they can hold steady on pricing despite drops in traffic and transactions. The reading is in sharp contrast to the Executive’s outlook last year at the same time, when the Pricing index was just 17.3, or 45.2 points below this June’s reading.

Part of the reason may be the Inventory component of the Operations index, which showed continued improvement versus the previous month. The Inventory reading showed a 160 basis point improvement in the outlook for the indicator.

“Executives are not letting one bad month affect their business plans,” said NRF president and CEO Tracy Mullin. “Pricing power remains strong which demonstrates that retailers are not overreacting with unplanned markdowns that eat away at profits.”

Perhaps most concerning is the Demand Outlook (a six-month outlook for sales), which took a hit in June (50.0) after posting its strongest reading in May (65.4) since the survey started in September 2002.