Consumer credit is at a record high, including auto loans. Already stretched, consumers are now having to deal with higher rates. Evidently, consumer sentiment remains suppressed. This has the potential to seriously impact retail sales next year – negatively, of … Continued
US consumer spending is holding up, even as manufacturing is under tremendous pressure. Consumers have been dipping into savings owed to loads of government stimulus post-Covid. Bank deposits remain healthy but at the same time the rate of change year-over-year … Continued
Debt addiction is pervasive among consumers, corporations as well as the federal government. Several debt-related metrics are in uncharted territories. The craving is built into the system and can continue until markets rebel. In December, U.S. consumer credit grew 4.7 … Continued
If the Fed moves in September and December, the fed funds rate will be in excess of core inflation. In a leveraged economy, that should begin to bite. The FOMC dot plot expects three more hikes next year. This is … Continued
U.S. consumers are alive and well. There is both good and bad in this – good now but potentially bad down the road. Consumer spending in December rose 0.4 percent month-over-month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $13.7 trillion. … Continued
The financial accounts of the U.S. for 2Q17 was published last Thursday. Better known as the Z.1 report, the massive quarterly publication contains tons of useful data – thus highly recommended. The seven charts below try to highlight where things … Continued
XLY (SPDR consumer discretionary ETF) saves a potential breakdown – for now, and just in time. On June 5 this year, XLY (89.36) rallied to 92.14, before retreating. Seven weeks later, on July 27, it rallied to 92.55, only to … Continued
The importance of consumers in the U.S. economy cannot be stressed enough. Real personal consumption expenditures (PCE) accounted for 68.6 percent of gross domestic product in the third quarter. Five decades ago, PCE’s share was nine points lower. Put another … Continued
The energizer bunny marches on. The U.S. consumer, that is. In the third quarter, the U.S. economy grew an annualized 1.5 percent. This was the first estimate, so it probably gets revised up or down by the time we have … Continued
What exactly would Fed officials be focused on when they decide to hike – or not – rates? It is a fair question given the amount of variance in their message. On Tuesday evening, John Williams, president of the San … Continued