Durable Goods Rise with Personal Income and Consumer Spending Ahead of Christmas

Durable goods for the month of November came in at +0.7%, which is higher than the -0.1% expected from Dow Jones and better than the +0.5% expected by Bloomberg. On an ex-transportation basis, the reading was up by 1.6%, versus Bloomberg estimates of +0.2% . While these are gains, they pale in comparison to a huge bounce in September and a huge drop in August.

Personal income for the month of November showed a gain of 0.6%, versus the Bloomberg estimate of 0.3%. Spending was up by 0.4% for the month, which was right in line with the Bloomberg estimate.

A lesser report came out for November as well, the Chicago Fed National Activity Index. This report came in at +0.10, versus a revised figure of -0.64 in October. This third report is not generally a market mover.

So to wrap it up, the reports for durable goods and personal income and spending were generally above expectations. These readings are unfortunately not enough to move the needle on a bad day after fiscal cliff negotiations have failed.

JON C. OGG