Inside the Economy: Holiday Spending and State budgets

This week on “Inside the Economy”, we continue to look at consumer spending. Consumers are shifting dollars from restaurants and travel to household items, gifts and workout equipment. This is evident by Amazon beating their earnings estimates for the quarter. An underwhelming part of the economy is state budgets. The pandemic has left states in deficits because of the loss of tax revenue. What will they do to recover? Will the Federal Reserve step in and help? Tune in to find out more!  

Key Takeaways:

• Consumers continue to spend more as the holidays approach
• Inflation is still below 2%
• Crude Oil is still below $40
• Unemployment data remains high and we expect it to level off
• The stock market indices experienced volatility in the days leading up to the election