Consumer & retail

The headline monthly measure of total US retail and food-service spending and the single best near-real-time read on consumer demand.

Strips out volatile auto sales to show core retail demand, a cleaner demand signal for non-auto retailers.

The Census Bureau benchmarked retail-trade-and-food-services level used to build the e-commerce share and sector trend lines.

Tracks the dollar level of online retail sales, the demand backbone for e-commerce and last-mile logistics.

The structural online-penetration ratio that signals channel-shift winners and pressure on brick-and-mortar formats.

Isolates restaurant and bar spending, the cleanest read on discretionary 'experience' demand and away-from-home eating.

A monthly online/direct-to-consumer sales proxy that leads the quarterly e-commerce data for nowcasting digital demand.

The broadest measure of household spending (goods plus services) and the dominant driver of US GDP.

Big-ticket discretionary spending (autos, appliances, electronics) that is highly rate-sensitive and cyclical.

Captures the post-pandemic shift toward services spending, the larger and stickier share of the consumer wallet.

Total household income from all sources, the fuel for future spending and a gauge of demand sustainability.

Inflation-adjusted after-tax income, the truest measure of household purchasing power and real spending capacity.

Share of income saved versus spent; a falling rate flags spending pulled forward and a thinning consumer cushion.

The credit-card balance level; rising revolving debt shows consumers leaning on credit to sustain spending.

All non-mortgage consumer debt (cards, auto, student), a broad gauge of household leverage and credit appetite.

Rising card delinquencies are the earliest warning of consumer stress and impending charge-offs for lenders.

The average APR consumers pay on cards; high rates raise debt-service burden and pressure discretionary spending.

Month-over-month momentum in core retail goods spending, a high-frequency demand-acceleration signal.

After-tax income in dollars, the denominator for the saving rate and a baseline for nominal spending capacity.

Apparel sales are a pure discretionary-demand and fashion-cycle read, sensitive to confidence and weather.

The largest single big-ticket discretionary purchase and a rate-sensitive bellwether for the auto value chain.