Personal Income and Spending Show Mixed Results

Today’s economic data is June data rather than July data, but it is still rather important because it pertains to the spending habits and income of Joe Public. Personal income rose by 0.5%, while spending came in flat. Bloomberg was calling for estimates of +0.4% in June personal income, and it was calling for a 0.1% gain in spending.

It is always good to see personal income on the rise, but the lower spending only echoes what we have seen in slower and slower retail spending. It also shows more support for what we saw from Retail Metrics this week previewing the same-store sales trends looking very mixed. We are just not at the point where strong retail sales are dominating the tape.

We saw revisions to the prior report as well. Personal income was revised up by 0.1% to +0.3% and spending was revised down by 0.1% to -0.1%.

JON C. OGG