Winners and losers from the December Retail Sales Report

The December Retail Sales report on Thursday showed sales were up solidly, but came in below expectations, with the headline print of +0.4% trailing both the consensus mark of +0.6% and November's growth of +0.8%.

In a surprise, the nonstore retailers category was only up 0.2% month-over-month and 6.0% higher year-over-year after a long stretch of regularly outperforming broad retail. While a quirk of Thanksgiving falling on the calendar as late as possible may have impacted sales, the slow growth could be something to watch for e-commerce pure plays such as Amazon (AMZN), Wayfair (W), Chewy (CHWY), Etsy (ETSY), Qurate Retail (QRTEA), eBay (EBAY), Beyond (BYON) , and Newegg (NEGG) that typically see big December growth marks.  

Home improvement retailers Home Depot (HD) and Lowe's (LOW) should also be on alert after the building materials & garden equipment category saw negative month-over-month and year-over-year growth.

Restaurant sales growth also ran below the broad retail sales marks, as consumers may have reacted to the elevated level of menu prices. Typically, that impacts dine-in companies such as Bloomin' Brands (BLMN) to a higher degree than fast-food chains such as McDonald's (MCD) and Taco Bell (YUM).

On the flip side, the furniture & home furnishings category topped expectations, with a 2.3% month-over-month and 8.4% year-over-year jump. That bodes well for Williams-Sonoma (WSM), RH (RH), Arhaus (ARHS), Ethan Allen (ETD), La-Z-Boy (LZB), and TJX Companies (TJX) into earnings season.