The Commerce Department today released the advance report for November retail sales. Here's the skinny from The New York Times.
In the latest snapshot of the holiday shopping season, the government reported today that retail sales increased 0.1 percent in November, a better performance than Wall Street had been expecting.
The gain for sales in October was revised sharply upwards to 0.8 percent from 0.2 percent.
Excluding volatile automobile sales, spending at the nation's retailers was up a 0.5 percent in November, the Commerce Department reported. Economists had predicted a 0.3 percent increase.
The report is apparently making the pros feel better.
"There had been fears that spending this holiday season would be flat after some of the larger retailers posted weak results following Thanksgiving," said Gregory Melich, a retail industry analyst at Morgan Stanley. "But these numbers suggest that we are going to end up with a moderately strong shopping season."
... the recent moderation in energy prices as well as a higher reading of the University of Michigan's consumer confidence survey for December may point to gains in December retail sales.
Happy holidays.
UPDATE: A less cheery take on the whole retail season here, from The Big Picture.