US retail sales rose for a fourth month in December, rising by a weaker-than-expected 0.4% vs. the previous month. The Commerce Dept. also revised up November’s sales to a strong 0.8% monthly increase. “The control group, which feeds into calculations of gross domestic product, exceeded estimates, rising by 0.7% for the month,” writes an analyst at RSM. “This increase lifted the group’s three-month annualized average to 5.4%, only slightly lower than the 5.9% recorded in the third quarter.”
