Industry suffers retail setback in December

U.S. retail sales backtracked in December across the board, as well as for building material and garden equipment and supplies dealers (NAICS 444), which were down 1.9% month-over-month when adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences.

Overall, industry dealers pulled in an adjusted estimate of $27.5 billion, down from $28.1 billion in November.

The category pulled in $328.0 billion over 12 months in 2014, an improvement of 5% over the previous year.

Overall advance estimates of U.S. retail and food service sales came in at $442.9 billion, down 0.9% from November’s total but still 3.2% ahead of December 2013. For the full year, total U.S. retail sales were up 4.0% from 2013.

Retail trade sales (not including food service) were down 1.1% in December and up 2.6% year-over-year. Within the trade, auto and other moto vehicle dealers, as well as food services and drinking places, were most-improved over the year, up 9.8% and 8.2%, respectively.

Gasoline stations were the hardest hit, declining 6.5% over the month and 14.2% over the year.