U.S. retail sales dropped to their lowest in more than nine years in December.

That included sales of clothes and furniture, musical instruments, and books, and spending on things like restaurants and bars, and hobbies.

Data for November was revised slightly down.

Bankrate's senior economic analyst Mark Hamrick: (SOUNDBITE) (English) BANKRATE.COM, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF AND SENIOR ECONOMIC ANALYST, MARK HAMRICK, SAYING: "You know, you look across the board with all these numbers within this report, and they're really weak across the board.

So, we now wonder whether December was, essentially, a blip, whether we see some recovery in the January retail sales numbers, or whether we're now in the midst of a more pronoun slowdown in the U.S. economy." Wall Street fell on the report.

Consumer spending accounts for more than two-thirds of the U.S. economy.