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. Tyler Durden Thu, 01/16/2020 - 08:39 Tags Business Finance