With US markets focusing on the growing geopolitical risks, it may have been easy to miss the BEA's release of July personal income and expenditures

With US markets focusing on the growing geopolitical risks, it may have been easy to miss the BEA's release of July personal income and expenditures. Keep in mind, with unemployment receding at an acceptable rate, income and spending levels have become perhaps a more important measure of economic activity. In July, personal income increased 0.2%, disposable personal income increased 0.1%, and personal consumption expenditures decreased 0.1%. On the surface, those numbers appear to be about mundane as they come. However, the report also marked the release of June revisions, where personal income and disposable income were revised up to 0.5% and personal consumption expenditures increased to 0.4%. In other words, the positive trend in both income and spending still appears to be in good shape. (VIEW LINK)