Three months ago feels like a long time. But the latest — and revised — data on gross domestic product released Thursday (March 28) by the Bureau of Economic Analysis details the fourth quarter and gives some hints as to what may come in the months ahead. The headline...
Rising prices at fast food eateries and other restaurants reportedly have lower-income diners pulling back. Around a quarter of low-income consumers — those who make under $50,000 a year — said they were eating less fast food, while roughly half said they were making fewer trips to...
Large players in the grocery industry took advantage of the pandemic’s supply chain problems to raise prices and profits and keep them high. So said the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in a press release and staff report issued Thursday (March 21). “As the pandemic illustrated,...
Call it status quo — and maybe a sense of ennui? The latest, preliminary readings of consumer sentiment for the month of March, issued Friday (March 15) by the University of Michigan, found that things are little changed. The latest calculation came in at 76.5...
We may have to wait a bit longer for rate cuts. And for the U.S. consumer, inflation’s a stubborn fact of life — volatile, to be sure — and it seems like when one category of spending becomes more manageable, others become more expensive. In...
Consumers have a stable short-term inflation outlook but a cautious view for the medium to long term. While near-term inflation expectations are steady at 3.0%, there’s a slight increase in inflation concerns for three to five years ahead, according to the February 2024 Survey of...
Healthcare and government employment led the U.S. economy’s job gains in February. These sectors led the pack as total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 275,000 in February, topping the average monthly gain of 230,000 over the previous 12 months, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said in a Friday (March...
For merchants, reliant upon consumer spending — and credit as a way to enable that spending — the warning signals are flashing. The Fed’s latest reading on consumer credit, known as the G.19 report, the headline numbers show that individuals’ and households’ total outstanding credit...
The U.S. Census Bureau revised its wholesale inventories estimate for January downward Wednesday (March 6). Total inventories dipped 0.3% in January compared with December 2023, rather than the drop of 0.1% the agency reported earlier in an advanced estimate, the Census Bureau said in a Wednesday press release....
