Retail Sales Steady As Expected, Despite Small Downwards Revisions for December

US retail sales seemed positive at first glance, but the situation is not so rosy

Written by: Skerdian Meta • Friday, February 14, 2020 • 1 min read

• Last updated: Friday, February 14, 2020

The US retail sales report was released a while ago. At first glance, it seemed alright, as headline sales came in at 0.3% for January, as expected, as well as core headlines. But, there were revisions lower for December’s report. Besides that, the control group fell flat, against a 0.3% increase expected.

US January advance retail sales +0.3% vs +0.3% expected
Prior was +0.3% (revised to +0.2%)
Ex autos +0.3% vs +0.3% expected
Prior ex autos +0.7% (revised to +0.6%)
Ex autos and gas +0.4% vs +0.3% expected
Prior ex autos and gas +0.3%
Control group 0.0% vs +0.3% expected
Prior control group +0.5% (revised to +0.2%)

So as we mentioned, the control group features a sizable miss along with a large downward revision to December. That’s a big change overall. With the revisions, the 3-month, 4-month and 6-month averages for the control group are all 0%, which doesn’t seem promising.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR See More

Skerdian Meta

Lead Analyst

Skerdian Meta Lead Analyst. Skerdian is a professional Forex trader and a market analyst. He has been actively engaged in market analysis for the past 11 years. Before becoming our head analyst, Skerdian served as a trader and market analyst in Saxo Bank's local branch, Aksioner. Skerdian specialized in experimenting with developing models and hands-on trading. Skerdian has a masters degree in finance and investment.