Retail sales unexpectedly rise in November as consumers keep spending
Key Advisors Wealth Management co-founder and CEO Eddie Ghabour discusses the state of the consumer ahead of the 2023 holiday shopping season on 'Varney & Co.'
Americans picked up their spending in November ahead of the pivotal holiday season as inflation showed welcome signs of cooling.
Retail sales, a measure of how much consumers spent on a number of everyday goods including cars, food and gasoline, rose 0.3% in November, the Commerce Department said Thursday. That is above both the 0.1% decline projected by Refinitiv economists and the revised 0.2% drop recorded in October.
Excluding the more volatile measurements of gasoline and autos, sales climbed 0.6% last month.
The November advance is not adjusted for inflation, meaning that consumers may be spending the same but getting less bang for their buck.
SILVER LINING OF HIGHER INTEREST RATES: SAVINGS ACCOUNT RATES
A shopper browses albums at a record store in Atlanta on Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2023. (Photo by Dustin Chambers/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)
«Today’s data suggests the U.S. economy – especially the consumer – is still chugging along,» said Chris Larkin, managing director of trading and investing at E*Trade from Morgan Stanley. «The risk going forward is that too much economic heat could reignite inflation and put the Fed back in a defensive posture. For now, though, the 'soft-ish' landing scenario remains in place.»
Consumers continued to spend at grocery stores, car dealers, health and personal stores and restaurants and bars – a bellwether of discretionary spending. They also continued to open their wallets when online shopping, with spending at non-store retailers jumping 1% from the previous month.
However, they pulled back their spending
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