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开奖号码历史查询: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开奖号码历史查询:gross domestic product calculations, came in above expectati𓆉ons. Economists said this suggests that fourth-quarter economic growth will stay on paඣce.

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

Holiday Sales Likely Beat Expectations

Miscellaneous stores, sporting goods s🎐ellers 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开奖号码历史查询:holiday sales projections, with Wells Fargo economists calculating a 4.1% year-over-year jump inꦰ holiday sales above the🐲ir 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.