Consumers’ Lust for Spending May Last Through Holidays, But Then?

Is it weariness of frugality? Cash coming out from under the mattress? Whatever the cause, consumers have in recent months upped their spending, giving the economy stronger growth that expected, even as businesses take a grimmer view of our prospects.

US Retail Sales Chart

US Retail Sales data by YCharts

The surge of spending is good news, for now at least, for the likes of Wal-Mart (WMT), Amazon (AMZN), Macy’s (M), Gap (GPS), lululemon (LULU) and Target (TGT).

It wouldn’t seem sustainable, unless the banking sector started sending out no-questions-asked credit cards again. So add to the fiscal cliff ahead for the federal budget a U.S. consumer potentially pulling up lame in 2013.

From the editors of YCharts, which includes the just-released YCharts Pro Platinum for professional investors.

Filed under: Economic Watch

blog comments powered by Disqus

Search Articles

Subscribe to YCharts Analysis

Register for your Free YCharts Account.

Understand your investments with more data than any other free site.

  • Create watchlists that you care about for stocks or economic indicators
  • Create alerts to track the movements of your stocks
  • Access stock analysis from our in-house experts
Get Started Now

Already registered? Sign in to your account.

document.write('');