Tag Archives: Consumer spending

Real gross domestic product (GDP) rose at an annual rate of 0.4 percent in the fourth quarter, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) reported Thursday. The report, coming just three days before the end of the first quarter, was an improvement over the first two GDP reports that showed the economy contracted by 0.1 percent then improved by 0.1 percent. The main drag on the fourth quarter economy--as it had been in the previous two fourth-quarter reports--continued to be government spending.

The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index fell to 59.7 from February's reading of 68.0 (which was revised down from 69.6). The decline wipes out most of the gains observed last month and brings the index to its second lowest reading so far this year. According to Lynn Franco, director or economic indicators at The Conference Board, the retreat in consumer confidence was driven primarily by a sharp decline in respondents' economic outlook, "although consumers were also more pessimistic in their assessment of current conditions."

Deloitte's Consumer Spending Index experienced a minor bump in February as "a decline in initial unemployment claims and a rise in real average hourly earnings offset negative forces," the company reported Wednesday. The index, which tracks consumer cash flow as an indicator of future spending, rose slightly to 4.0 last month from a reading 3.9 in January. While the increase was relatively small, it turned around three straight months of declines and showed consumers are weathering the payroll tax increase well.

Unexpectedly positive employment and spending data drove mortgage rates to their highest level since August last week, according to Freddie Mac and Bankrate.com.

Led by a surge in gasoline prices, retail sales rose 1.1 percent in February, the Census Bureau reported Wednesday. Economists had expected an increase of 0.5 percent. In January, retails sales rose 0.2 percent.

After dipping into negative territory last month, consumer sentiment inched up in March, according to the Consumer Reports Index. The index's sentiment measure improved to 50.7 in March from a reading of 48.9 in February. The greatest improvement among income brackets was seen in lower-income households earning less than $50,000--that index climbed 3.7 points. Besides sentiment, the index report tracks consumer responses on four other key measures: financial troubles, stress, retail activity, and employment.

The President has tried repeatedly to describe the impact of sequestration, a mandatory across-the-board cut in federal spending exempting only a small handful of social safety net programs. Despite those exemptions, a simple fact is that people will die as a result of these cuts, and lives could be changed irrevocably. The tragedy in this is not what might happen, although that's pretty severe long-term. The tragedy is both Democrats and Republicans have the means to fix it without having to resort to face-saving techniques.

Signs of expanding employment lifted the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan Index of Consumer Sentiment, according to a release issued Friday.

Personal income dropped $505.5 billion, or 3.6 percent, and disposable personal income (DPI) fell $491.4 billion, or 4.0 percent, in January, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) reported Friday. The income drop was steeper than the 2.1 percent decline economists had expected.

Economic data for the week ending February 22--particularly for housing--was less than encouraging. A small increase in existing-home sales was the only bright spot, but that was weighed down by another drop in the median price of existing single-family homes to their lowest level in 10 months. The word "another" is critical because it means the drop in inventory in December did not result in higher prices. Indeed, the supply of homes for sale fell again in January, this time to the lowest level in 13 years.