Published on 18 Jan 2022 on Zacks via Yahoo Finance
U.S. retail sales declined 1.9% sequentially in December 2021, marking the biggest fall since February 2021 and ending four successive months of strong growth. A spike in inflation and early holiday shopping (well before Thanksgiving Day) in apprehension of shipping delays led to the slump. As a result, retail sales for October were revised up slightly. The sales growth in December came in well below market expectations of 0.8%.
Consumer spending makes up about 70% of U.S. economic activity. Thus, any massive slump in it will likely dim the economic growth prospects. Below we highlight a few areas and the related ETFs that should stay afloat despite the subdued December retail sales.
Miscellaneous Store Retailers