Economic Growth in U.S. Cracking Under Strain of Global Slowdown

[marmar]

(Bloomberg) The U.S. may not be immune from the global slowdown after all.

Figures on retail sales and manufacturing Friday showed the world’s largest economy ended the year on a weak note, and the start of 2016 wasn’t any better. The one saving grace was a pickup in consumer confidence, but that was mainly because households believed inflation will be low, making subdued wage gains look good by comparison.

“The data this morning has been pretty much one way,” said Gennadiy Goldberg, a U.S. strategist at TD Securities USA LLC in New York. “It’s fanning some of these fears that the economy is being dragged down into the mud by the rest of the world.”

Weakness in retail sales compounds concerns that momentum in consumer spending, which has been the backstop of U.S. growth prospects, is starting to fade. Meanwhile, a slowdown in China and other emerging markets has sent commodity prices lower and roiled stock markets around the world, exacerbating the plight of manufacturers who are being hit by an appreciating dollar.

The turbulence complicates the task of Federal Reserve policy makers, who started raising interest rates last month on the expectation that U.S. growth would continue to strengthen and inflation will pick up. ................(more)

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-15/economic-growth-in-u-s-cracking-under-strain-of-global-slowdown