FxWirePro: Daily Commodity Tracker - 21st March, 2022 
Retail sales rose by 0.2% in November according to the advance report, or just shy of the 0.3% expected by economists. October's 0.1% advance print was largely unrevised.
Sales were higher after excluding autos (+0.4% m/m) print could have been even higher if both autos and gasoline were included.
Most core retail categories such as clothing (+0.8%), sporting goods (+0.8%), merchandise stores (+0.7%), eating and drinking places (+0.7%) and electronics (+0.6%) were all up very strongly.
While the pace of nominal retail sales declined below expectations, much of this is a price effect. Seasonally adjusted gasoline prices fell 0.9% m/m on the month suggesting that sales were actually higher in gallon terms as Americans took to the road to visit family and friends for Thanksgiving. Prices of many other consumer goods were also likely pressured by continued strength of the U.S. dollar, with broad trade-weighted dollar up 1.5% in November.
Encouragingly, discretionary spending was up broadly with most categories reporting strong sales performance during the key weeks of the holiday shopping season, with real PCE tracking 2.3% for Q4.
After disappointing October figures, the November report suggests that consumers are finally beginning to use the windfall in disposable income that job gains, an uptick in wages, and low gasoline prices have been providing. While the November spending report was not a good one.
"We remain confident that consumption will strengthen in the coming months, with spending unlikely to stall despite the Fed likely beginning to raise rates next week", says TD Economics.
