U.S. consumers broke a six-month streak of beating economists' expectations for retail sales but still showed an appetite for spending during the holiday season.

Census Bureau data showed retail sales last month totaled $729.2 billion, a 0.4% 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:gain on November’s results, which were also adjusted higher. Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires expected a more robust result of 0.5%.

Despite not coming in as strong as expected, economists said the results still reflected a healthy economic outlook and pointed to strength in some sales categories. The “control group sales,” which factor into 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:gross domestic product 𒆙calculations, came in above expectations. Economists said this suggests that fourth-quarter economic growth wiꩵll stay on pace.

“That tells us that the consumer is healthy and confident, two important observations for an economy that has roughly two-thirds of its GDP driven b⛎y consumer spending,” said Bret Kenwell, eToro U.S. investment analyst.

Holiday Sales Likely Beat Expectations

ꦇ Miscellaneous stores, sporting goods sellers and furniture dealers led the final month of the holiday sales season. Sales were lower for building materials, restaurants and bars. 

Overall, the data also showed that retailers beat 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:holiday sales projections, with Wells Fa♊rgo economists calculating a 4.1% year-over-year jump in holiday sales above their projections of 3.3% holiday sales growth.

“When combined with upward revisions to November sales, the data put 2024 holiday sales just below their long-run average and suggest it was a decent holiday sales season for retailers,” wrote Wells Fargo economists Tim Quinlan, Shannon Grein and Jeremiah Kohl.