Census Bureau says retail sales held steady in December

The U.S. Census Bureau announced today that advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for December, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, were $400.6 billion.

The December figure is up 0.1% from November, and up 6.5% from December 2010.

Total sales for the October through December 2011 period were up 7.0% from the same period a year ago.

In business classification NAICS 444 -- building material and garden equipment and supplies dealers -- adjusted sales in December were $25.879 billion, up 1.7% from the previous month, and up 1.6% from the same month last year.

The Census Bureau's report can be found here.