今日美国收入和消费数据分析。消费支出是目前最重要观察的美国经济指标。这个指标是一个非常典型的滞后指标。

U.S. Economy Cools as Consumer Spending Misses Forecasts (3)

Business-equipment orders decline, missing estimates

August gain in monthly core prices also trails projections

By?Reade Pickert

(Bloomberg) –?

The U.S. economy cooled in August as Americans spent less than projected and companies cut capital-equipment orders, with below-forecast prices also adding to concerns that may support the case for further Federal Reserve easing. Treasury yields pared gains.

Consumer?spending?on goods and services, which accounts for about two-thirds of gross domestic product, increased 0.1% from July, the smallest gain in six months, Commerce Department data showed Friday. The Fed’s preferred underlying price gauge rose 0.1% from July, missing the median 0.2% estimate, while the gain in incomes matched projections.

“The consumer is still in solid shape and the quarter’s still going to be good, but we were shaping up initially for a spectacular quarter, and I think we probably need to temper expectations a little bit,” said?Stephen Stanley, chief economist at Amherst Pierpont Securities.

A separate Commerce Department report showed?bookings?for non-military capital goods excluding aircraft — a proxy for business investment — fell 0.2%, the weakest performance in four months, compared with forecasts for no change.

The data suggest growth continued to cool in the third quarter, adding focus to next week’s September jobs report to show whether the labor-market slowdown is deepening. At the same time, solid income gains and a still-healthy job market should keep supporting consumption and extend the record-long U.S. expansion in coming months, as wages and salaries posted the biggest increase since March.

Last week, Fed officials cut the benchmark interest rate by a quarter point for the second time in two months to protect the economy from global weakness and trade uncertainty. Central bankers’ quarterly forecasts signaled only a minority of officials saw the need to lower borrowing costs further this year.

The trend in non-military capital goods orders underscores how the U.S.-China trade war and slowing growth abroad are weighing on American companies. Policy uncertainty has muddled supply chains and contributed to delayed long-term investments in people and capital. The question is how much the weakness will filter through to the broader economy.

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