U.S. Retail Sales Strong in November
RetailSails submits:Improving consumer confidence and aggressive discounting by retailers led to a strong start to the holiday season. The Commerce Department reported this morning that its advanced estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for November rose an adjusted 0.8% from the prior month to $378.7 billion, following a 1.7% rise in October, while sales increased 9.2% (unadjusted) compared to the year-ago period. This is the 13th straight year-over-year gain after 15 consecutive months of declines, which was the longest such streak on record. 
Total sales excluding autos were up 7.9% from last year, while total sales less autos and gas stations showed a 7.7% year-on-year increase. Retail gains have been impressive for most of 2010, with year-to-date sales 6.5% higher than last year. However, nominal sales have still yet to return to peak levels, as total monthly sales were still down 0.3% from November 2007, and year-to-date sales are down 1.6% and 1.5% from 2008 and 2007, respectively.Complete Story »
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