US: Retail sales decline 1.2% in December vs 0.2% expected

According to the monthly report published by the U.S. Census Bureau, retail sales in the U.S. declined by 1.2% on a monthly basis in December following November's 0.1% (revised) growth and fell short of the market expectation for an increase of 0.2%. 

Key takeaways from the press release

• Advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for December 2018 were $505.8 billion, a decrease of 1.2 percent from the previous month, but 2.3 percent above
  December 2017. 
• Retail trade sales were down 1.3 percent from November 2018, but 2.1 percent above last year.
• Total sales for the October 2018 through December 2018 period were up 3.7 percent.