December Retail Sales Upside Surprise Despite Online Sales Slowdown

With annual growth in core retail sales having slumped into November, analysts were cautiously optimistic that December would prompt a rebound in the much-watched indicator of consumer strength (despite signals from Target, among others, that all was not well).

However, while headline retail sales rose 0.3% as expected, ex-autos saw a significant 0.7% MoM surge in December (better than the expected 0.5% rise), best since July.

Source: Bloomberg

And thanks to the volatility of last December, YoY retail sales exploded higher…

Source: Bloomberg

But amid all this exuberance, auto sales slipped as did department stores…

But, online sales were up just 0.2%…

The control group – which is used for GDP calculation purposes – rose 0.5% MoM, better than expected.