U.S. economic consumption category declines in September 2023

Our article in Medium

We wrote an article in Medium sharing all of the categories of U.S. economic personal consumption that declined in September 2023, from the previous month, on an annualized basis. The results will surprise you.

Here is the summary from that article:
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Our key take away from this lengthy list of goods and services that declined in the past month is that the U.S. consumer is cutting back where it can to save money. It is eating less animal products, consuming less recreation and entertainment, and letting their homes fall into disrepair. The U.S. consumer is gambling and playing less, giving less to charity, spending less on household and personal services (less personal grooming), and has slowed spending on new cars and trucks. We also noticed a big decline in video and audio streaming services (think Netflix and Spotify), and in the use of childcare and educational services.


There are other goods and services categories in significant decline that continue to fall, such as landline phones, the use of stationary for writing, and television services.


Of surprise to us was that electricity usage declined, along gasoline and fuel oils. Normally, this frees up spending capacity to be spent elsewhere.


In our opinion, this is a sign of weakness in the U.S. economy.

If you dig into the article, you will see certain line item of interest for stock investors. For example, haircuts are down, so European Wax Center is probably going to see declining revenues, and a falling stock price. Gambling revenue is down slightly, so there goes Las Vegas.

​Use the information as part of your investment research. Good luck.