Personal Income and Spending Disappoint in October

Personal income and spending fell for the month of October, but this is yet another economic report that is marred from the impacts and uncertainty around Hurricane Sandy. Personal income was unchanged in October, while spending was down by 0.2%. These readings compare to personal income being up 0.4% and spending being up 0.8% in September. Bloomberg was calling for 0.3% in personal income and 0.1% in spending.

While this coincides with weak retail and weak jobs data we have seen elsewhere in recent weeks, the impact of the hurricane is throwing this off. The Commerce Department even went as far as to say in its report that it could not precisely quantify the total impact from the hurricane.

What may still be somewhat of a concern is that this was the first spending drop since May. Futures ticked down on the news, but only by a very modest amount as the blame is somewhat easy to recognize here.

JON C. OGG