U.S. Census Bureau: November retail sales positively impacted

WASHINGTON A glimmer of hope for the holiday season: The U.S. Census Bureau announced Friday that advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for November were $352.1 billion, an increase of 1.3% from the previous month, and a 1.9% increase from the year-ago period.

The estimates were adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences but not for price changes.

Meanwhile, total sales for the September through November 2009 period were down 2.1% from the same period a year ago. The September to October 2009 percent change was revised from +1.4% to +1.1%.

Additonally, retail trade sales were positively impacted with 1.4% increase from October and 2.2% above last year.