The Chicago Fed's preliminary nowcast of retail & food services sales (ex autos) growth in December is 0.4% MoM and 3.8% YoY, which would be an deceleration from growth of 4.3% YoY in November.

• November retail sales data has yet to be released, and the nowcast is set at 0.3% MoM and 4.3% YoY.
• The December nowcast is based on positive contributions from transactions (+22 bps) and Census data (+14 bps), while foot traffic & sentiment made a negligible contribution of 3 bp.
• The nowcast for retail & food services sales (ex autos) price growth is 0.2% MoM and 1.5% YoY.

• The inflation-adjusted nowcast of retail sales is 0.2% MoM as nominal sales growth outpaced price growth.