Advance Retail Sales Unexpectedly Decline 1.1% 

The Commerce Department Advance Retail Sales Report shows a 1.1%. decline in November vs an Econoday consensus estimate of -0.3%.

Commerce Details

Advance Estimates of U.S. Retail and Food Services Advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for November 2020, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, were $546.5 billion, a decrease of 1.1 percent  from the previous month, but 4.1 percent above November 2019. 

Total sales for the September 2020 through November 2020 period were up 5.2 percent from the same period a year ago. 

The September 2020 to October 2020 percent change was revised from up 0.3 percent to down 0.1 percent. 

Retail trade sales were down 0.8 percent from October 2020, but 7.1 percent above last year. 
Nonstore retailers were up 29.2 percent  from November 2019, while food services and drinking places were down 17.2 percent from last year.

Worse Than it Looks

The decline is even worse than it looks because the Commerce Department revised October from +0.3% to -0.1%.