U.S. retail sales rose just 0.3% in February, below the 0.4% estimate as inflation negatively impacted American consumer spending.
Consumers continued to spend in February through at a slower pace than expected, according to a Commerce Department report Wednesday.
Advance retail sales grew 0.3% for the month, slightly below the 0.4% Dow Jones estimate. Stripping out autos, sales were up 0.2%, well below expectations for a 0.9% increase and indicative that after a rapid pace to start the year, consumers were slowing down.
The spending numbers were well below the rise in prices, which increased 0.8% in February, according to Labor Department data released last week.
“With real disposable incomes having already been falling since mid-2021, as earlier fiscal support was withdrawn, and the more general surge in prices took its toll, real consumption growth still looks likely to slow over the coming months, particularly when the personal savings rate is already below its pre-pandemic level,” [Andrew Hunter, senior U.S. economist at Capital Economics], wrote. “It also may not be long before Fed tightening starts to hit spending on big-ticket durables.”
Jeffry Bartash for MarketWatch:
Sales at U.S. retailers slowed sharply in February, rising a scant 0.3%, and Americans probably bought fewer goods like groceries, consumer electronics and furniture and after factoring in high inflation.
Retail sales were positive largely because of a 5.3% increase in spending on gasoline, but that reflects rising oil prices and is not good news for either consumers or the economy.
Most of the decline in sales took place Internet retailers and stores that sell groceries, furniture, consumer electronics and health items.
MacDailyNews Take: Obviously, inflation is an ongoing concern for everyone – and every company – involved in the U.S. economy and declines in consumer electronic sales directly impacts Apple.
‘Tis best to get a handle on inflation, if you know how, while you still can. – MacDailyNews, May 11, 2021
Earlier this year, Interactive Brokers founder Thomas Peterffy said, “Inflation is 7% — 1% or 2% [in interest rate hikes] doesn’t mean anything. If they really wanted to stop inflation, they would have to raise rates to 4%, 5%, 6%.”
Inflation is repudiation. — Calvin Coolidge
When a business or an individual spends more than it makes, it goes bankrupt. When government does it, it sends you the bill. And when government does it for 40 years, the bill comes in two ways: higher taxes and inflation. Make no mistake about it, inflation is a tax and not by accident. — Ronald Reagan
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Looks like the leftist cabal called “President Joe Biden,” installed by unconstitutional voting changes bankrolled by Mark Zuckerberg’s $400+ million targeting urban Democrat areas and nursing homes full of Biden’s fellow dementia patients in selected swing states, is about as good — or even worse (GASP!) — in the oval office as a Georgia peanut farmer.
Troll.
You misspelled “truth.”
25 Big Questions That Democrats Can’t Answer About The 2020 Election — Because They Know They Cheated
Why did the vote counting stop on election night in several swing states?
Why did the vote counting delays only happen in swing states?
Why were election observers barred from entering vote counting stations in swing states?
Why did Trey Trainor, the chair of the Federal Election Commission, declare on TV that election “observers have not been allowed into the polling locations in a meaningful way” and that “if they’re not, the law is not being followed, making this an illegitimate election” on November 6th, 2020?
Why are any electronic voting machines hooked up to the Internet?
Why were votes from the 2020 election sent overseas for “processing” and “tabulation” purposes?
Why would votes from 30 states in America be processed by a Canadian firm?
Why would the company that “tabulates” votes for 800 American counties be a recently bankrupt Barcelona-based firm with the Department of Defense as its best-known client?
Why would America’s electronic voting machines be under the ownership of citizens from foreign nations?
Why are so many electronic voting machine companies owned by shell companies?
Why did it take Maricopa County (Arizona) two weeks to count its votes?
Why did an audit expert find 74,000 more votes were counted in Maricopa County (Arizona) than were mailed out?
Why did Mark Zuckerberg fork over $400 million to his personal charity to run a parallel private election system in 2020?
Why did the Special Counsel in Wisconsin just release a report that called Zuckerberg’s donations in five Wisconsin counties a classic case of bribery?
Why did AG Merrick Garland at Biden’s Department of Justice threaten to interfere in a post-election audit conducted in Arizona — and authorized by the state of Arizona?
Why did a county circuit court judge in Wisconsin rule that the Wisconsin Elections Commission had run the 2020 election in an illegal manner?
Why have the voting machine companies refused to comply with subpoenas from the state officials of Wisconsin?
Why do the voting machine companies refuse to have their machines inspected even though these machines are used in public elections?
Why is a federal judge in Georgia refusing to release a report by a cybersecurity expert who inspected a Dominion machine and found it vulnerable to hacking and manipulation of the votes?
Why has Dominion Voting Systems refused to comply with the post-election audit in Arizona — which was ordered by the State of Arizona itself?
Why are more than 300,000 ballot transfer forms missing in Georgia’s 2020 election?
Why did Dominion Voting Systems fail to show up and answer questions from the elected officials of Pennsylvania after the 2020 election?
Why do 204,430 mail-in ballots in Arizona have mismatched signatures?
Why do 740,000 mail-in ballots in Arizona have broken chain of custody?
Why did the Wisconsin Special Counsel find that 50 nursing homes had 100% voter turnout and that cheating was widespread?
Amen! Nothing more to add than epic losses projected for Democrats at the ballot box…
No big surprise. Democrats are fools.
Stop voting for Democrats if you like:
• to eat
• to protect your kids from degenerates
• low gas prices
• low crime
• peace and prosperity
• freedom from illogical mandates and dictates
• affordable energy
• secure borders
• not being accused of being a racist
• not being accused of being a homophobe
• not being called deplorable
• low taxes
• a strong, capable military
• money in your pocket
The 2022 U.S. Midterm Elections are going to be GLORIOUS!
MAGA!
Troll.
Hey, you misspelled “truth,” again.
Thanks Libturds!!!!! If Dementia Joe is so popluar, why is no one wearing Build Back Better hats?????
Don’t blame libturds, they are too stupid to understand what they did.
Not only are they so stupid that they vote for dementia Joe in the first place, but they still support him after all the destruction he caused. Libturd stupidity knows no bounds.
The stupid breed faster than normal folk which is why we are now overrun with idiots.
Remarkable that all the accusations that you level against “Libturds”, are actually the exact problems with you…shall we say…”Conservaturds”.
Intelligent people generally don’t bother making attacks like the ones on these comment pages, but in this case, I’ll make an exception.
Hal, please relay the proper title if/when you refer to the bill again:
“Bill Back Later”
Truly, no meme, it’s “for the children” and the onus they will bear.
Thank you.
Interesting
(Warning: this is on-topic, not politics)
Overall, I don’t see “coming up short” as a problem here.
That’s because this isn’t a report of a decline in consumer spending: it is a report of a smaller increase in spending than they were expecting.
We know that inflation is when demand exceeds supply, driving up prices, so this reduction in the increase in demand (eg, “comes up short”), does decrease inflationary pressures.
Isn’t that (decrease inflationary pressures) precisely what we say we want?
So what’s the problem?
We’ve been saying that inflation is “too high” and hoping for (painless) ways to bring it down, but is there any more painless way for the general public than this – – a reduced rate of growth – – to limit inflation? If not, let’s hear it.
That would depend on if it was strictly demand that was driving up prices…. which in this case it clearly is not. I’m looking at you taxes, regulation, oil supply, core materials and political pressure.
Geopolitics may cause price volatility but in the long run fundamental economics takes over. If you take a longer view, you will see that US standard of living in recent history has been propped up enabled by globalization feeding consumers historically cheap commodities, as well as 25 years of federal & consumer debt spending at historically low borrowing rates. Ask your parents about the mortgage rate on their homes if you want to compare inflation.
CPI alone is not the story. The much bigger issue is that working wages have been suppressed while Robber Barons take obscene compensation. For 30 years working wages have under-tracked price inflation. Only in the last couple years have wage increases outpaced inflation. The relative gap between income and costs is important, not the absolute value of any one thing. The people who want to make political points aren’t presenting the data to justify their outrage. Keep perspective.
Taxes: nominal income tax rates are near historic lows. Too complex to discuss here, but you know it’s true. The highly touted 2017 debt-creating tax bill of 2017 hasn’t been repealed. Some would argue that the only way to curb the massive debt the USA services is to return to 1950’s era income tax rates, which were much more progressively higher for the extreme rich. It prompted business executives to reinvest in their companies rather than pocketing all profits. Instead both parties have spend decades spending like drunken sailors and taxpayers haven’t yet repaid the bill. The day of reckoning will be ugly if Americans don’t own up to the deficits they keep running soon.
Regulation: Given that most large corporations choose to be headquartered in the USA, it would seem this is not a problem. Too complex to discuss here. I prefer high standards, clean air, and clean water.
Oil Supply: It’s a global commodity. Price spike is receding now that Russian oil has been replaced by other sources. If consumers want to be less sensitive to the price of oil, diversify your energy sources. There is no constitutional promise of cheap gas, nor a mandate for the government to interfere in free markets. The fact that the USA established a SPR to take the edge off of supply shocks should be viewed as a gift. Strict constitutionalists would reject the idea of such consumer protection.
Core materials: this is an issue. It became an acute issue in the wake of reckless “easy to win” trade wars. Distribution and artificial trade barriers (some good, some bad) is now a bigger problem than raw material access.
Political pressure: Not sure what this is supposed to mean, when US Congress is practically owned by corporations.
Prices rise whenever producers choose to do so. A fundamental law of capitalism is that the price will always seek the highest level the buyers can bear. It is APPROPRIATE that consumers curb their purchasing, as that is the only real signal that will cause companies to stop price escalation. This is how inflation will be checked. All the other factors you mention are minor or haven’t substantially changed in the last several years.