Consumer Spending Weakens.

Personal Income and Outlays (September 2014)

– Personal Income month/month +0.2%. Previous was +0.3%
– Consumer Spending month/month  -0.2%. Previous was +0.5%
– PCE Price Index month/month +0.1%. Previous was -0.1%
– Core PCE price index month/month +0.1%. Previous was +0.1%
– Consumer Spending  +1.4%. Previous was +1.4%
– Core PCE price index year/year +1.5%. Previous was +1.5%.

The Consumer Spending number was weaker than expected and was in-line with yesterday’s low Consumer part of GDP.

 
Employment Cost Index (3rdQ2014)

– ECI quarter/quarter +0.7%. Previous was +0.7%
– ECI year/year +2.2%. Previous was +2.0%.

 
Chicago PMI (October 2014)

– Business Barometer Index 66.2. Previous was 60.5.

 

Consumer Sentiment (October 2014)

– Sentiment Index 86.9. previous was 86.4.

This is the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index.  Strong Consumer Sentiment such as this is supposed to indicate strong Consumer Spending but it has not been doing so lately.  There may be distortions before elections.