Economy

Consumers remain troubled by a stubbornly high cost of living, which has been a major drag on sentiment this year, but recent holiday shopping data points to resilient consumer demand.

Despite a spate of layoff announcements, today’s data suggests that layoffs remain limited, helping to allay concerns about a rapid deterioration in the labor market.

“Higher-income customers were unconstrained, but ‘customers in the middle to lower end of the financial spectrum are tightening the belt.’”

The dated snapshot likely doesn’t change much for Federal Reserve officials, many of whom were already leaning away from cutting interest rates again next month.

“AI is the hyperscalers’ ‘Manhattan Project. CEOs see the risk of not winning as just as much—if not more—of a risk as overspending.”

As Trump throws up trade barriers, intra-Asian trade is becoming freer.