The K-shaped consumer. Aggregates hide a split: asset owners spend, wage earners retrench; retailers report the two economies in the same week.
What to watch: Spending and sentiment by income tercile; luxury versus dollar-store results. It arrives monthly, and the effect typically lasts months.
It sits in tier 3 — Flows and mechanics: Moves prices without changing anything fundamental, on horizons from hours to weeks. Who is forced to buy or sell, and when. Ignore this tier and market moves will regularly look inexplicable.
Its neighbourhood
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What moves it
Chains it would confirm
Sectors it moves most
Trends tracked by this
Also in Consumer and housing
- Retail sales
- Consumer confidence and sentiment
- Personal income, spending, and saving rate
- Consumer credit and delinquencies
- Housing starts and permits
- Existing and new home sales
- Home prices
- Mortgage rates and applications
- Household net worth and the wealth effect
- Household savings buffers
- Homeowners insurance availability and cost
- Homebuilder sentiment and pending home sales
- Market rent indices
- Auto sales (SAAR) and inventories
- Restaurant same-store sales and hotel RevPAR
- Card-spending panels
- Retail gasoline prices
- Residential electricity prices
- Childcare and tuition inflation
- Pet spending and vet prices