U.S. auto retail sales are expected to dip in January as reduced manufacturing due to the Omicron variant, supply chain constraints and global inflation caused prices to soar amid high demand, consultants J.D. Power and LMC Automotive said. Retail sales of new vehicles could fall 8.3 percent to 828,900 units from a year earlier, according to a report released by the consultants on Wednesday. “The volume of new vehicles being delivered to dealerships in January has been insufficient to meet strong consumer demand, resulting in a significantly diminished sales pace,” said Thomas King, president of the data and analytics division at J.D. Powers. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused bottlenecks in supply chains, driving up costs for everything from labor to raw materials. The average new-vehicle retail transaction price in January is expected to reach $44,905, the previous high was in December 2021 at $45,283. U.S. business activity grew at its …