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U.S. retail sales grew less than expected in September, offering a potential signal that American consumers are turning more cautious amid a weakened labor market and the lingering impact of broad import tariffs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The key gauge of consumer spending \u2014 which makes up over two-thirds of U.S. economic activity \u2014 was delayed by the record-long government shutdown, prompting some analysts to warn that conditions for households may have shifted since the data was collected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Still, the Federal Reserve is closely watching the wave of postponed economic releases ahead of its interest rate decision next month. Reports suggest policymakers remain split over whether to cut rates again to bolster the soft jobs market or wait for fresher economic inputs. The Fed previously cut rates by 25 basis points<\/strong> in both September and October, lowering the target range to 3.75%\u20134%<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Market expectations for another cut have strengthened significantly. CME\u2019s FedWatch Tool shows traders assigning roughly an 85% probability<\/strong> to another quarter-point reduction<\/strong> at the December meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wall Street is also monitoring the health of U.S. households as the holiday shopping season begins, marked by heavy Black Friday<\/strong> and Cyber Monday<\/strong> promotions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to the Commerce Department\u2019s Census Bureau, retail sales rose 0.2%<\/strong> in September, following a 0.6%<\/strong> increase in August. Economists had expected 0.4%<\/strong>. On an annual basis, sales were up 4.3%<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cCore\u201d retail sales \u2014 which exclude automobiles, gasoline, building materials, and food services \u2014 edged up just 0.1%<\/strong>, following a downwardly revised 0.6%<\/strong> rise in August. These core figures more closely track the consumer spending component of U.S. GDP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In separate data released Tuesday, U.S. producer prices rose in line with forecasts for September, supported by higher costs for gasoline, motor vehicles, and meat products. The final demand services index was unchanged after falling in August.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Analysts noted that a December Fed rate cut now looks \u201cvery likely<\/strong>,\u201d but cautioned that investors should focus on the forward guidance<\/strong>, which could shift in a more hawkish<\/strong> tone depending on the Fed\u2019s outlook for early 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" U.S. retail sales grew less than expected in September, offering a potential signal that American consumers are turning more cautious amid a weakened labor market and the lingering impact of broad import tariffs. The key gauge of consumer spending \u2014 which makes up over two-thirds of U.S. economic activity \u2014 was delayed by the record-long …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":32719,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,39,36],"tags":[6933,10703,10704,7002,8051],"class_list":["post-121174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-forex-markets","category-global-stock-markets","category-market-updates","tag-amazon","tag-auto-sales","tag-petrol-stations","tag-retail-sales","tag-target"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121174"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121174\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":121175,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121174\/revisions\/121175"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}PPI Data Matches Expectations<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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