Consumer spending in the United States has proven resilient through a volatile year, but cracks are emerging at the low end of the credit spectrum. With third-quarter earnings season beginning later this month, the performance of the nation’s biggest banks will provide new details on...
Consumer spending has remained resilient, but inflation expectations are inching higher, creating new challenges for retailers as they prepare for the holiday shopping season. PYMNTS’ recent reporting shows that while households continue to spend, sentiment data suggests consumers anticipate higher prices at the register. Merchants...
Consumer sentiment has always been more than a mood measure. It shapes how households decide whether to spend, save or delay purchases, and even how they think about the security of their jobs. The University of Michigan released its September consumer sentiment data Friday (Sept....
Along with home ownership, a longstanding pillar of the American dream is that each generation should outshine the previous one in economic well-being. Young adults in the cohort known as Generation Z, now aged roughly 18 to 28, show signs of building the financial habits...
For millions of consumers in the United States, living paycheck to paycheck isn’t a permanent sentence. The surprising angle of new research is that most consumers in this tight-budget category once enjoyed greater financial stability and that history shapes whether they believe they can escape...
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is postponing its annual consumer spending report. The announcement Friday (Sept. 19), presented without explanation, follows President Donald Trump’s recent firing of the bureau’s head. “The 2024 Consumer Expenditures annual data release scheduled on September 23, 2025, will be...
The financial lives of Generation Z are unfolding in a universe that looks increasingly alien to traditional banks. For decades, checking accounts and passbook savings were the entry point for young customers, anchoring relationships that might eventually blossom into mortgages, auto loans and wealth management....
A growing number of consumers in the United States are living paycheck to paycheck, not because they earn too little, but because of how their financial pasts and perceptions of the future shape how they spend and save. The August edition of PYMNTS Intelligence’s New...
Consumer sentiment in the U.S. has taken another sharp downturn, as September’s preliminary data from the University of Michigan signals mounting anxieties over tariffs, inflation and the labor market. This latest drop in optimism—now at its lowest point since May—highlights a growing sense of caution...