Consensus for the headline figure is for no change from November.
Ex-cars, consensus is for a 0.4% gain.
BI's Joe Weisenthal explains why this number is particularly important.
"We've seen a lot of retail industry blowups in recent days - companies pre-warning of quarterly results only to see their stocks tank....Meanwhile, WSJ was hinting last week that retail sales could be the kind of drag that could make the Fed think twice about an accelerated path to the exit."