November Retail Sales: Up 0.8% MoM, Better Than Forecast

The Census Bureau’s Advance Retail Sales Report for November released this morning showed an increase over the October figures. Headline sales came in at 0.8% month-over-month to one decimal. Today’s headline number was above the Investing.com consensus of 0.3%. Core sales (ex Autos) came in at 1.0% MoM. September and October figures were revised.

Here is the introduction from today’s report:

Advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for November 2017, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, were $492.7 billion, an increase of 0.8 percent (±0.5 percent) from the previous month, and 5.8 percent (±0.7 percent) above November 2016. Total sales for the September 2017 through November 2017 period were up 5.2 percent (±0.5 percent) from the same period a year ago. The September 2017 to October 2017 percent change was revised from up 0.2 percent (±0.5 percent)* to up 0.5 percent (±0.2 percent).

Retail trade sales were up 0.8 percent (±0.5 percent) from October 2017, and were up 6.3 percent (±0.7 percent) from last year. Gasoline Stations were up 12.2 percent (±1.4 percent) from November 2016, while Building Materials and Garden Equipment and Supplies Dealers were up 10.7 percent (±2.1 percent) from last year. [view full report]

The chart below is a log-scale snapshot of retail sales since the early 1990s. The two exponential regressions through the data help us to evaluate the long-term trend of this key economic indicator.

The year-over-year percent change provides another perspective on the historical trend. Here is the headline series.

Core Sales

Here is the year-over-year version of Core Retail Sales.

“Control” Purchases

The next two charts illustrate retail sales “Control” purchases, which is an even more “Core” view of retail sales. This series excludes Motor Vehicles & Parts, Gasoline, Building Materials as well as Food Services & Drinking Places. The popular financial press typically ignores this series, but it a more consistent and reliable reading of the economy.