Core Retail Sales Growth Weakest Since February

With YoY retail sales growth having slowed dramatically in the last two months (actually contracting MoM in Septmber), analysts were expecting a credit-card-fueled buying bounce in November but it was disappointing.

Confirming BofA’s credit-card data…

November retail sales rose just 0.2% MoM (much lower than the 0.5% rise expected)

Source: Bloomberg

Retail sales increased in 8 of the 13 sectors…

But in the core, ex-autos and gas, year-over-year retail sales growth is its weakest since Feb 2019…

Source: Bloomberg

The control group’s meager 0.1% rise – which feeds into GDP – is not what the doctor ordered…

Source: Bloomberg

…as it seems, despite soaring confidence, the US consumer is not exuberantly over-spending.