US retail sales moved slower than expected in May, increasing by 0.1% against economist forecasts of 0.3%. What does this retail data signal about the state of the US consumer and even the greater economy at large?
Deutsche Bank Chief US Economist Matthew Luzzetti believes the consumer and economy are both "slowing," but retail sales data may not be as "worrying" a trend at this moment. Luzzetti turns his attention to the likelihood of the Federal Reserve cutting rates in the second half of 2024.
"So they [Fed officials] need to see better inflation, but they would also like to see an economy that is not re-accelerating, that is not too strong. So today's consumer spending I think is supportive from from that perspective," Luzzetti tells Yahoo Finance's The Morning Brief. "But [what] the Fed would ultimately like to see would be better inflation, a labor market that is slowing but is still resilient, and a consumer that is slowing but is still resilient."
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This post was written by Luke Carberry Mogan.