Real Personal Income, Chicago PMI and Consumer Sentiment All Lower

Personal Income and Outlays (August 2012)

Personal Income – Month/Month +0.1%
Consumer Spending – Month/Month +0.5%
PCE Price Index — Month/Month +0.4%
Core PCE price index – Month/Month 0.1%

Nominal Income was up slightly.  Real (inflation adjusted) income was down. Higher gas prices made real income lower.  Factoring out food and gas real income was flat.

 

Chicago PMI (September 2012)

– Business Barometer Index was 40.7 indicating contraction.  This is the first time since September 2009 that this index had been flashing “contraction.”

 

Consumer Sentiment (September 2012)

The University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment index was 78.3.  This is a survey index of 500 households.  It is supposed to determine consumers’ predisposition to spend.  Previous was 79.2.