Posted by Joseph Y. Calhoun, III

Retail sales rose in November:

The U.S. Census Bureau announced today that advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for November, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, were $352.1 billion, an increase of 1.3 percent (±0.5%) from the previous month and 1.9 percent (±0.5%) above November 2008. Total sales for the September through November 2009 period were down 2.1 percent (±0.3%) from the same period a year ago. The September to October 2009 percent change was revised from +1.4 percent (±0.5%) to +1.1 percent (±0.2%).

A good bit of the gain was due to higher gas prices, but overall a solid report. The year over year comparisons will continue to be pretty easy for the next few months as even the new normal is better than the panic mode of a year ago. The US consumer should never be counted out.