Resilient consumer keeps pressure on the Fed
A hot jobs market is boosting consumer spending.
Retail sales rose 0.7% in September from the previous month, more than double Wall Street’s estimates for 0.3% growth, according to new data from the Commerce Department on Tuesday. Retail sales have now grown from the month prior for six-straight months, marking a consistent trend of consumer spending.
This, economists say has been supported by an average of nearly 270,000 nonfarm payroll additions over the same period. With no clear signs of the labor market fully cooling, the strong position of the US consumer entering the fourth quarter of 2023 could provide upside risks to inflation and therefore more Fed rate hikes.
“The economy is entering Q4 with more momentum than we previously thought,” Oxford Economics lead US economist Michael Pearce wrote in a research note on Tuesday. “The risks to our forecast for a slight contraction in consumption in Q4 are firmly to the upside. The strength…
2023-10-17 10:12:02
Original from finance.yahoo.com
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