The Census Bureau says the combined value of distributive trade sales and manufacturers’ shipments for December dropped 0.7% from November.
Advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for January were $649.8 billion, an increase of 3.8% from December.
Price pressure trends continue as last month’s wholesale inflation was 9.7% higher than January 2021, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said.
Over the past year, the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers increased 7.5% before seasonal adjustment, the highest since 1982.
Just 54% of new and existing homes sold between October and December were affordable to families earning the U.S. median income.
The adjusted Fastener Distributor Index was 52.7, although modest improvement was seen in most metrics, according to the latest analysis.
The deficit was $80.7 billion in December, up $1.4 billion from a revised $79.3 billion in November.
With significant upward revision in November and December, hundreds of thousands of more jobs were created than economists initially expected.
Year 2021 member sales were $58.5 billion, a 30% increase from 2020, with purchases by member companies from AD supplier partners up 39%.
But nonresidential construction spending fell 0.7%, according to an Associated Builders and Contractors data analysis.
The U.S. economy grew in the fourth quarter, but investment in nonresidential structures decreased at an annual rate of 11.4%.
Real GDP increased at an annual rate of 6.9% in the fourth quarter of 2021, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
