In November, U.S. retail sales totaled $546.5 billion, down 1.1 percent from the previous month and up 4.1 percent from a year earlier, according to National Retail Data released by the United States Department of Commerce. It was the first month-on-month decline in US retail sales in nearly seven months. In addition, sales at furniture and housewares retailers in November were $10.31 billion, down 1.1 percent from the previous month and up 3.6 percent from a year earlier. In the first 11 months of this year, cumulative sales at furniture and housewares retailers were still 6.4 percent lower than in the same period last year.