- by New Deal democrat
No graphs this time, but I wanted to point out that there were a slew of reports this morning confirming that low gas prices (and maybe an asssist from consistent stronger job growth, and maybe a little bit of wage growth), have caused a real surge in consumer sentiment and behavior in the US.
Here's the list:
- Personal spending for November rose a strong +0.6%.
- ICSC same store sales for last week were reported up +3.3% for the week, and +3.1% YoY.
- Redbook same store sales last week were up +5.3% YoY, the third-strongest showing all year.
- Consumer sentiment from the University of Michigan at 93.6, down just 0.2 from two weeks ago, and together the strongest monthly showing bar one since 2005.
- Gallup's 3 day average of consumer spending hit $130 on December 14th for only the second time since the onset of the last recession
- Gallup's daily Economic Confidence index just had the best daily (-1) and weekly (-4) readings since before the last recession.
It is crystal clear that in the last 2 to 3 months, there has been a real change in attitude among average Americans about the economy, and their wallets are showing it.
