Personal income and personal spending both came in with positive readings for the month of June. Personal income was up 0.4%, versus a 0.3% consensus from Bloomberg, and the month of May was revised from a gain of 0.5% to a slightly lower gain of 0.4%. Consumer spending rose by 0.2% in June, versus the 0.2% expected by Bloomberg, but the May report was revised from a gain of 0.9% to a less robust 0.7%.
The long and short of the matter here is that consumers saw income tick up modestly in June, but they had some alligator arms when it came to reaching for their wallets to pay for things.
Inflation simply remains very low, and gasoline prices have fallen further from the end of June. The core PCE price index was up by only 0.1% in June, which translates to a mere 1.3% year-over-year gain. That just does not give the Federal Reserve too much room to hike rates very aggressively if there is even lower inflationary pressure.
These numbers do not generally move the markets much because of the timing lag from when the data is read. Still, it is one more bit of proof that inflation just is found in very few (if any) places.
All in all, the markets are looking for new direction Monday.
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