Tag Archives: US personal consumption

A sharp rise in boat buying suggests that US economic expansion has matured.A key question for investors is how to gauge the point we are at in the US business cycle. Some are worried that we have already surpassed the length of the previous expansion. According to data from the National Bureau of Economic Research, we are 99 months into an upward cycle that started in July 2009, while the 2002-07 expansion lasted for 72 months. That said, we are still below the lengthy expansion of the...

Macroview In spite of poor August retail report, we remain reasonably sanguine on US consumer spending growth over the near term. Today’s US retail sales report for August was surprisingly downbeat, with core retail sales recording their second monthly decline in a row. Core retail sales in the US fell by 0.1% month over month (m-o-m) in August, worse than consensus expectations. Moreover, June and July numbers were revised down by a cumulative 0.2%. The result was that between Q2 and...