Redbook And ICSC-Goldman Offer Glimpse Into Retail Spending For December

Redbook Chain Store Sales announced Tuesday indicated a 5.4 percent year over year growth, slightly higher than last week's 5.3 percent improvement. At the same time, Redbook reported same-store sales during the first four weeks of December rose 4.7 percent from the same period a year ago, but were 0.5 percent lower from last month.ICSC-Goldman weekly data, also announced Tuesday, indicated U.S. retail sales last week were unchanged month over month but were high 2.2 percent year over year.Shares of the SPDR S&P Retail ETF (NYSE: XRT) were trading higher by 0.42 percent shortly Tuesday morning.