Retail sales were up, but they did miss expectations, according to the latest data from the Census Bureau….(Census Bureau)
- M-O-M: Advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales were up 0.3% in November 2021 to $639.8 billion.
- Y-O-Y: Retail sales were up 18.2% when compared to the same time one year ago.
NOTE: Economists had projected a month-over-month increase of 0.8%
Looking at month-over-month data it wasn’t all positive, but annual data in November was all in the green…
- Gas stations saw the biggest month-over-month jump with 1.7% growth followed by sporting good/hobby stores & food/beverage stores both up 1.3%, restaurants (+1.0%), and home improvement stores (0.7%)
- Gas stations also saw the biggest jump year-over-year with 52.3% growth followed by restaurants (+37.4%), clothing stores (+34.8%), misclallsnus stores (23.8%), and sporting goods/hobby stores up 20.0%.
NOTE: Department stores had the worst month down 5.4% from October followed by electronic stores (-4.6%), car part shops (0.1%), and internet retailers saw 0% growth.
Gregory Daco, Chief US Economist at Oxford Economics, noted on Twitter that this was a subdued start to the holiday season amid higher price, but we are still moving in the right direction…
- “US retail sales remain a healthy 23% higher pre-Covid and core sales are 22% higher. Perhaps more importantly, US retail sales remain 13% higher than their pre-Covid trend”