US: Retail Sales decline by 0.7% in December vs. 0 expected

• Retail Sales in the US continued to fall in December. 
• US Dollar Index stays in the positive territory near 90.50.

Retail Sales in the US fell by 0.7% in December to $540.9 billion, the data published by the US Census Bureau showed on Friday. This reading followed November's decline of 1.4% (revised from 1.1%) and came in worse than the market expectation of no-change.

Additional takeaways

"Total sales for the October 2020 through December 2020 period were up 4.0% from the same period a year ago."

"Retail trade sales were down 0.3% from November 2020 but 6.3% above last year."

Market reaction

This report was largely ignored by market participants and the US Dollar Index was last seen gaining 0.24% on the day at 90.45.