The myth of the resurgent US consumer, who was somehow supposed to benefit massively from the "unambiguously good" plunge in oil and gas prices, has been gutted and eviscerated, with the latest confirmation coming from the Personal Income and Spending data, in which we find that not only did personal income not grow in March, with wage growth the lowest in 2015 (with manufacturing workers' incomes coming flat and Trade and Transportation wages actually down), but because spending rose by a weaker than expected 0.4% in March, the 4th miss in the past 5 months, US personal savings have resumed declining and all those "gas savings" are finally being spent: just not where they should be spent, and not in the amounts hoped.
Personal income has now missed 5 of the past 7 months.
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Personal income and spending:
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Personal savings dropped from 5.7% to 5.3% - the lowest of 2015:
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Wages and Salaries: hardly the stuff recoveries are made of:
And finally, yes, spending finally rebounded. The problem is that it wasn't enough and Q1 GDP will likely be cut once more.
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