The Commerce Department announced on Friday the sales at U.S. retailers declined
1.9 percent m-o-m in December, following a downwardly revised 0.2 percent m-o-m
gain (from 0.3 percent m-o-m) in November. This marked the first decline in
retail sales five months, which was also the deepest since February.
Economists had expected total sales would be unchanged m-o-m in December.
According to the report, the December drop in sales was due to declines
in 10 of all 13 retail categories, led by nonstore retailers (-8.7 percent
m-o-m), furniture stores (-5.5 percent m-o-m), sporting goods, hobby, musical
instrument, and book stores (-4.3 percent m-o-m). These decreases,
however, were partially offset by the advances in miscellaneous store retailers
(+1.8 percent m-o-m), building material and garden equipment and supplies
dealers (+0.9 percent m-o-m), and health and personal care stores (+0.5 percent
m-o-m).
Excluding auto, retail sales plunged 2.3 percent m-o-m in December after
a downwardly revised 0.1 percent m-o-m uptick (from 0.3 percent m-o-m) in the
previous month, being much worse than economists’ forecast of a 0.2 percent
m-o-m increase.
In y-o-y terms, the U.S. retail sales jumped 16.9
percent in December after an unrevised 18.2 percent surge in the previous month.