Doves Singed By Hot US Retail Sales

US retail sales were much stronger than expected in this week's only top-tier data release out of the world's largest economy. If you were already predisposed to fade recent extremes in rate-cut pricing, the nominal spending update will harden your hawkish conviction. The headline showed a 0.6% increase for December, much better than the 0.4% economists expected. It was the eighth increase in nine months, and it doesn't exactly scream "slowdown." Eight of 13 categories showed an increase. S