US: Retail sales increased 0.2% in January following December's decline of 1.6%

According to the data published by the U.S. Census Bureau, retail sales in January rose by 0.2% following December's 1.6% contraction and surpassed the market expectation of for a no-change.

Key takeaways from the press release

• Advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for January 2019 were $504.4 billion, an increase of 0.2 percent from the previous month, and 2.3 percent above January 2018.
• Total sales for the November 2018 through January 2019 period were up 2.6 percent from the same period a year ago.
• The November 2018 to December 2018 percent change was revised from down 1.2 percent to down 1.6 percent.
• Retail trade sales were up 0.2 percent from December 2018, and 1.9 percent above last year.